China’s passport trap: A new front in the global war on Uyghurs

Obulqasim Isma’il’s new passport was issued with the wrong name and the wrong birthdate

Threat to chef living in Kyrgyzstan raises spectre of new sinister tactics to crack down on persecuted minority

Beijing’s embassies are believed to be deliberately producing travel documents with incorrect information for citizens living abroad, thus setting them up for deportation.

For Uyghurs, a persecuted Muslim minority, being sent back to China means they are likely to face imprisonment, “re-education” camps, and torture.

Obulqasim Isma’il, who has lived in Kyrgyzstan since 1998, told The Telegraph he was given a new passport at the Chinese embassy last autumn.

It had his picture, but an incorrect name (Aisikaer Nuermaimaiti) and an incorrect birth date of Aug 3 1966, instead of March 16 1973.

He protested to embassy staff, pointing out that the information was inaccurate, but they forced him to accept the passport anyway. To get the passport fixed, “they said I would have to go to Urumchi [in China] to complain,” he said.

Mr Obulqasim, 52, is now stuck in limbo, and faces deportation within days from Kyrgyzstan to China because he is in possession of a “fake” passport in the eyes of the Kyrgyz authorities.

“I am afraid they would incarcerate me if I went,” Mr Obulqasim told The Telegraph. “I’m very scared about what will happen to me if I’m forced to go back.”

Since 2014, China’s crackdown against the Uyghurs has intensified significantly, with the authorities arbitrarily detaining upwards of a million people in “re-education”’ camps, and scores more in prison for “crimes” such as praying and fasting.

Beijing is also known to target fugitives abroad. The government has specified that it “provides clues” about “fugitives…to the countries where they are located, so that these countries would deprive them of their residency status and compulsorily repatriate them to our country or the third country in accordance with immigration laws”.

Who China considers a fugitive, however, is very subjective, as the state considers political dissidents and ethnic minorities, such as Uyghurs and Tibetans, who are critical of the government to be criminals.

Brazen arrests on foreign soil

Beijing has brazenly sent its officers into other jurisdictions to make arrests on foreign soil, as well as kidnapping foreigners in secret and sending them back to prison. It is continually adapting its methods, and is particularly adept at exploiting legal grey areas.

In the past, embassies and consulates would refuse to renew passports abroad, forcing applicants to return to China to process paperwork – a practice that drew uproar globally. In many cases, they also would not issue passports domestically, controlling who could and could not travel abroad.

But experts say Mr Obulqasim’s unusual situation of being issued with a passport with incorrect information could be a new way by which China is working to claw people back they want to silence, as part of a broader campaign of transnational repression.

Obulqasim Isma'il has become a target for China despite being neither an activist or a dissident in the years he has spent in Kyrgyzstan

Obulqasim Isma’il has become a target for China despite being neither an activist or a dissident in the years he has spent in Kyrgyzstan

“We do know China actively uses deportation in cooperation with other authorities to get people back – that’s an official policy,” said Laura Harth, of Safeguard Defenders, a human rights advocacy organisation that focuses on China.

Several means of forced returns are codified in Chinese law, with “repatriation” listed as one measure.

What’s new in Mr Obulqasim’s case is that the Chinese embassy did technically issue Mr Obulqasim with a passport, but with inaccurate identifying details, causing him a host of visa problems in Kyrgyzstan now leading to likely deportation.

“It seems quite smart,” said Ms Harth, noting that such an approach gives China “plausible deniability”.

Mr Obulqasim, a soft-spoken man, works as a chef, and is neither an activist nor a dissident. But experts say his mere identity as an Uyghur is enough to put him in China’s crosshairs.

“We see this pattern over and over again. Not just in Kyrgyzstan, but in countries where China is targeting individuals, there doesn’t seem to be rhyme or reason why,” said Julie Millsap, director of government relations at the Wild Pigeon Collective, a Uyghur advocacy organisation.

“Some seem to be very ordinary businesspeople, and at times not even particularly well-connected, yet China will go to efforts to force countries to send people back as part of a broader trend.”

After emigrating from China in 1998, Mr Obulqasim visited his country of birth only a few times, and hasn’t returned in 25 years. His remaining family members there have all since died.

Uyghur women confront a riot policeman during a protest in Urumqi in the far west Xinjiang province

Uyghur women confront a riot policeman during a protest in Urumqi in the far west Xinjiang province Credit: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images

He built a new life, and at one point ran his own restaurant in Kyrgyzstan, where he married and had several children. Other than a few short stints working in Uzbekistan and Turkey, also as a chef, he has primarily resided in Kyrgyzstan.

Before his older brother died, Chinese authorities would force him to call Mr Obulqasim to try and persuade him to return. The message from his brother was always the same: “They say you should come home, just for a week or two.”

China’s intimidation of Mr Obulqasim through his brother would always intensify around the time when he sought to renew his passport, he said. The harassment was serious enough that he distanced himself from his brother.

Back then, passports granted to him were only valid for two to three years. But in 2013, to his surprise, Mr Obulqasim was suddenly issued a passport valid for a decade.

Uyghurs abroad of increasing concern

His most recent passport renewal application was his first attempt to receive new documents since China significantly ramped up its crackdown against the Uyghurs in a campaign that many Western politicians and governments have called a genocide.

It is unclear whether China has a specific reason to target Mr Obulqasim, or whether he is simply caught up in the wider campaign to place Uyghurs under lock and key, particularly those in central Asian countries – former Soviet Union countries where Beijing has edged Russia out in power and influence.

The Beijing government is primarily concerned with ensuring the ruling Communist Party stays in power, and silencing any individual or group that might challenge its authority. Uyghurs abroad have been of increasing concern, as members of the diaspora were amongst the initial whistleblowers regarding China’s extreme human rights abuses.

A protester from the Uyghur community living in Turkey holds a placard during a visit by the Chinese foreign minister to Istanbul in 2021

A protester from the Uyghur community living in Turkey holds a placard during a visit by the Chinese foreign minister to Istanbul in 2021 Credit: Emrah Gurel/AP Photo

One possible explanation for Mr Obulqasim’s situation is that he had simply evaded the attention of the authorities until now, because he has not had to renew his passport since 2013.

Experts have also raised the possibility that he may inadvertently have a connection to people who are linked to or participated in a 1997 political uprising against the government in Ghuljia, where he was born.

The erroneous passport could also have been a clerical error, but one that the Chinese embassy for some reason is unwilling to fix.

Mr Obulqasim has now applied to be registered with the United Nations as an asylum seeker, and is awaiting a response.

“I am so afraid that they will just come at night, put a black hood over my head, handcuff me and take me to the airport to send me to China,” he said.

“I’m not able to sleep at night, and my heart is pounding all the time. My wife’s hair is turning grey, and she is constantly on the verge of crying. My kids, too, are deeply worried. They try to be around me all the time in case the police come, but if they do come, there is nothing they or I can do.

“I don’t have a theory for why this happened to me. This is the worst phase, and I have never felt more terrified or anxious. It’s terrible; I am completely at their mercy, and I have not done anything.”

The Chinese embassy in London said it was not aware of Mr Obulqasim’s case and accused Western media of reporting “with a biased lens” on Xinjiang, the far-west region of China where Uyghurs live.

It also claimed that “people of all ethnic groups live and work in peace and their lawful rights are fully safeguarded” and said it was “evidence” of the “true” human rights situation and the “effectiveness of China’s policies in governing Xinjiang”.

Neither the Kyrgyz embassy in London nor the Chinese embassy in Bishkek replied to a request for comment.

China’s passport trap: A new front in the global war on Uyghurs

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