Rights Group Raises Alarm Over Ethnic Kazakh Who Fled Xinjiang

Group says the 23-year-old man has been held in Kazakhstan and could be deported to China.

By Qian Lang for RFA Mandarin

Yerzhanat Abai, 23, an ethnic Kazakh man who fled from Xinjiang to Kazakhstan several weeks ago.Credit:Atajurt Volunteer Organization via RFA

A human rights group is urging Kazakhstan not to deport to China a 23-year-old ethnic Kazakh man who fled from Xinjiang several weeks ago, warning he could face persecution and internment there.

Atajurt, a volunteer group that campaigns for Kazakh victims of oppression in Xinjiang, said Friday it had confirmed that the man, Yerzhanat Abai, has been detained by Kazakh police.

Serikzhan Bilash, who heads the group, said Yerzhanat Abai, a Chinese national, is being held in the Panfilov City Detention Center in Zharkent county, Almaty province, which is about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the border with China.

“He could be secretly escorted to China by Xinjiang’s national security or Kazakhstan’s National Security Bureau at any time, and no one knows his specific situation. Only if this matter is made public to the world will the Kazakh government be unable to repatriate him,” said Serikzhan.

Serikzhan, who lives in exile in the United States, has been a vocal campaigner for the release of fellow ethnic Kazakhs from Chinese camps, where the ruling Chinese Communist Party held an estimated 1.8 million ethnic minority Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other Muslims in mass incarceration centers after 2017. Beijing denies the allegations.

Many young people in Xinjiang are often summoned by the police, or sent to learning centers under various pretexts, saying they are providing employment opportunities. In fact, they are arranged to work in factories in the mainland, most of which are chemical factories that are harmful to health, and the wages are even lower than in Xinjiang,” Serikzhan said.

According to Atajurt, Yerzhanat Abai entered Kazakhstan on March 27 and sought help from the group in the Kazakh city of Almaty four days later. He said he was from Gongliu county, Yili prefecture in Xinjiang, China.

The circumstances of his leaving China and why he was detained in Kazakhstan weren’t immediately clear.

RFA sought comment without success from the Kazakhstan Interior Ministry and the Chinese Consulate General in Almaty.

Edited by Mat Pennington.