Cambodia to deport Uighur asylum seekers

Dec 19, 2009, 8:44 GMT

Phnom Penh - The Cambodian government has decided to deport 20 Uighur asylum seekers back to China despite concerns from human rights groups about their safety, officials said Saturday.

The decision to deport the 22 asylum seekers who came from the far western Xinjiang region and arrived in Cambodia last month came days before the arrival of Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping on an official visit.

'They are not real refugees,' Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak told the German Press Agency dpa. 'They will have to leave Cambodia in no later than one week.'

The Chinese Muslims from Xinjiang, the site of violent anti-Chinese protests in July, entered Cambodia last month and were given a 'people of concern' status by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) before they were taken into police custody for violating immigration laws.

Earlier reports said 22 Uighurs, including three children, arrived in Cambodia overland, but Koy Kuong, spokesman for Cambodia's Foreign Affairs Ministry, said authorities had taken 20 into custody and have no knowledge of the two others.

He added that Phnom Penh had determined the Uighurs had entered the country illegally and would be returned to China.

'All 20 illegally entered Cambodia because they have no immigration papers, no visa,' Koy Kuong said. 'Therefore, they violated Cambodia's 1994 immigration law. They have to be deported because they are illegal immigrants.'

Human rights groups said they fear the Uighurs would be mistreated if returned to China.

The Uighur American Association said some in the group had witnessed security forces killing and beating Uighur demonstrators and if returned to China, they could face persecution, including possible execution.

'We are concerned because there were earlier assurances given at the highest level to UNHCR that asylum seekers would be allowed to have their status determined through a fair procedure and that during that period they will be protected, but it seems that now this decision has been rescinded,' Christophe Pescoux, Cambodia's representative at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said by phone Saturday.

'The Cambodia government had sighed the international convention on refugees, so they should protect human rights of any asylum seekers, not send them back, because they could face torture,' Pescoux said.

The UN is working to persuade Cambodia to 'reconsider their decision,' Pescoux said.

Clashes over the summer between Han Chinese and Muslim Uighur residents in Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital, left 197 people dead, according to Chinese government figures. However, Uighur exile groups said up to 800 people died, many of them Uighurs shot or beaten to death by police.