Two Uyghur couples and a 1-month-old baby face possible deportation to China after being detained by Turkish authorities and placed in administrative detention at a removal center, raising renewed concerns over the treatment of Uyghurs seeking refuge in Turkey.
According to the Karar news website Müeyesser Ali was taken into custody during a police operation in İstanbul on December 24 along with her husband, Abdullah Pehirdin. Two other Uyghurs, Abdullah’s sister Merziye Pehirdin and his brother-in-law Bilal Erkin were also detained in the same operation, with no official justification provided. Four children from the two families, the oldest of whom is 11, were also taken to the removal center with the adults.
The families were initially taken to a deportation center in the northwestern province of Kırklareli before being transferred to another facility in İzmir, where the provincial migration directorate extended their administrative detention. Their lawyer filed an objection with a criminal magistrate of peace.
The detained adults have been living in Turkey for about 11 years with long-term residence permits, and all four of the children were born in the country. Three of the youngsters were placed in the care of relatives after suffering health problems during the transfer to İzmir. However, Ali’s 1-month-old baby, Enes Abdallah, remained with her in detention.
The family’s lawyer said migrants are often automatically sent to removal centers after giving statements to the police, adding that while the Migration Directorate has the authority to release individuals without a court order, this happens in only about 30 percent of cases, with most releases taking place only after court rulings.
Since late 2016 Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region have been subjected to mass arbitrary detention, torture and other abuses that rights groups and United Nations experts have described as crimes against humanity. Turkey has long served as a refuge for Uyghurs due to shared linguistic and cultural ties.
In addition to sharing a religion with the majority of Turkey’s population, Uyghurs — a Turkic ethnic group — also speak a similar language. An estimated 50,000 Uyghurs are currently living in Turkey, making it the largest Uyghur diaspora in the world. But a Turkey-China extradition treaty signed in 2017 that is still awaiting ratification by the Turkish Parliament has led to fears that it could be used to target Uyghurs in Turkey.
