Source: Human Rights Watch
(New York) - The Chinese government should immediately allow access to the 20 Uighur asylum seekers who were forcibly deported to China on December 19, 2009, in what was a breach by the Cambodian government of its obligations under international law, Human Rights Watch said today. The group of Uighurs included 17 men, one woman, and two children.
China's record of torture, disappearance, and arbitrary detention of Uighurs, its failure to extend due process for prosecutions in Xinjiang, and its intense pressure on Cambodia to return the group are cause for gravest concern about the asylum seekers' whereabouts and wellbeing, Human Rights Watch said.
"The Chinese foreign ministry unilaterally labeled these Uighur men, women and children as 'criminals,'" said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The Chinese government must be pressed as hard as possible to announce the location of the returnees, to allow access to members of the international diplomatic community, and to release them unless it produces credible evidence in public to show that each one committed acts that could be described as criminal in light of international standards."
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