Canada’s decision to resettle 10,000 Uighurs may upset China: Report

Geneva:

The Canadian Parliament, led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, unanimously passed a resolution to allow the resettlement of 10,000 Uighur Muslims, mainly fleeing repression in Xinjiang province, to China, The Geneva Daily reported. can bother.

Lawmakers in Canada’s House of Commons voted in favor of the motion 322-0 on January 1, with the house erupting in applause when the motion was passed.

The resolution states that the Uyghurs, “face pressure and intimidation by the Chinese state to return to China, where they face widespread arbitrary detention, mass separation of children from their parents, forced There is a grave risk of sterilization, forced labor, torture, and other atrocities.”

As an additional step to mark China’s treatment of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region as “genocide”, Canada’s parliament passed a unanimous resolution that calls for approximately 10,000 Uyghur refugees to enter Canada over the next two years starting in 2024. does rehabilitation work. Geneva Daily.

The bill, M-62, was introduced by Liberal Party member Samir Zuberi, who called the vote a “historic moment”.

“It was a great day for Canada, for the Uyghur people and for our human family,” he tweeted.

At a press conference, Zuberi remarked that the passing of the resolution was “a clear signal that we do not accept human rights violations against the Uyghur people.”

The bill accused Beijing of applying diplomatic and economic pressure on countries such as Turkey, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, which have high Uyghur populations, to detain and deport Uyghurs, “putting them on the world map,” the Geneva Daily reported. leaving without safe haven”.

In 2021, Canada became one of the first countries to label China’s treatment of the Uyghur genocide.

At the time, Canadian Ambassador Leslie Norton commented on the situation in Xinjiang, describing not only Canada’s deep concern about the human rights situation in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, but also the Canadian government’s commitment to human rights issues. Rukh was also criticized. Ottawa to introspect on the historical treatment of Indigenous peoples and compensation for victims.

Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning on Thursday accused Ottawa of “politically manipulating Xinjiang-related issues for covert purposes, spreading propaganda and misleading the public”.

In addition, Jiang Duan, a senior official at China’s mission to the United Nations in Geneva, also stated that “historically, Canada robbed indigenous peoples of their land, killed them, and erased their culture”.

Since 2017, Beijing has carried out a wide-ranging crackdown in the northwestern Xinjiang region under the banner of terrorism, waging a campaign to forcibly assimilate the mostly Muslim ethnic minority group.

Experts estimate that Chinese authorities have detained more than 1 million Uighurs as part of the crackdown, holding them in centers and “re-education” camps that have drawn international condemnation.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)