“Here on featherweight rights, with relatives in Xinjiang pressured”: The fates of those who fled China

Qaisha Aqan, a Kazakh from China, with an asylum-seeker certificate.

A few years ago, ethnic Kazakhs Qaisha Aqan, Qaster Musahan, and Murager Alim, fearing persecution in Xinjiang, fled China and illegally crossed the Kazakhstan border. This year marks their third living on refugee certificates, as Astana is neither granting them citizenship nor issuing the travel documents necessary to relocate to a third country.

Zhou Yuan, the “Nie Shubin of Xinjiang”, Finally Exonerated: But is Justice 20 Years Late Still Justice?

Zhou Yuan (周远), at some point after release.

On the night of May 17, 1997, Zhou Yuan, then 27, was taken away by the police from his home in Ghulja, Xinjiang. The police suspected him of being the perpetrator in multiple cases of physically injuring and raping women, with the trial of first instance seeing him sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve.

They called us the “terrorist family”

My name is Gulnar Omirzaq. I’m from Chapchal County – a village called Termenbulaq, in Segizsumyn. I’m going to share everything that happened to me and other members of minority groups that live in China. I am one of the people who witnessed these things.

“He will be 17 when his mother is back”

Ershidin Osman with his wife and children.

Unable to get in touch with her relatives, Aminem Osman doesn’t know if her sister is still alive. What she knows is that she got a 15-year prison sentence, and that her four children are now growing up without their parents.