TURKISTAN TIMES, May 11 – ISTANBUL: According to Canada's "Montreal Gazette" website on May 10, the first group of "dozens" of Uyghur refugees has arrived in Canada, based on a decision approved by the Canadian Parliament in 2023 to accept 10,000 Uyghur refugees. This information was disclosed to the Montreal Gazette on Saturday by Member of Parliament Samir Zubairi, the initiator of the motion.
Although Samir Zubairi declined to disclose the exact number of arriving refugees, he noted their arrival in Canada over the past few weeks and stated that he had met with some of them. Mr. Zubairi posted a photo on the X social media platform with three newly arrived Uyghur refugees, whose faces were obscured in the picture to protect their identities.
The Chinese government's widespread repressive actions against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan continue to face strong international condemnation. According to reports from human rights organizations, over a million Uyghurs and other minorities are detained in so-called "re-education camps." The Canadian Parliament has recognized the Chinese government's actions as "genocide," citing evidence of slavery, sexual violence, forced sterilization, mass surveillance, and the suppression of Uyghur language and culture.
Previously, in April of this year, Samir Zubairi had expressed strong dissatisfaction with the slow progress of the government's refugee resettlement plan in a statement to the Montreal Gazette. He reiterated this concern in the recent interview, criticizing government agencies for not dedicating sufficient effort to the matter. "Ultimately, government agencies are the instruments for implementing government decisions. I expect the government to advance this matter more quickly," he said.
Although Zubairi acknowledged the difficulty for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to meet the target of accepting 10,000 Uyghur refugees by the end of 2025, he expressed his belief that "if there is political will, this target can be met."
According to the decision approved by Parliament in February 2023, the Canadian government committed to accepting 10,000 Uyghur refugees within two years, not directly from China, but from Turkey and other third countries, and resettling them in Canada. However, until December 2024, before this new group of refugees arrived, only one Uyghur refugee was known to have arrived in Canada under this plan.
According to Mehmet Tohti, Executive Director of the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project, tens of thousands of Uyghur refugees currently seeking asylum in Central Asia and Turkey face the risk of deportation to China.
Samir Zubairi described the arrival of these refugees as a "historic moment" and added, "This is not a matter of partisan interest, but a humanitarian issue."
