Short Description
A leading international human rights group has urged Chinese authorities to end its restriction on issuing passports for religious minorities that have been suffering a discriminatory double-tiered passport system for years.
A leading international human rights group has urged Chinese authorities to end its restriction on issuing passports for religious minorities that have been suffering a discriminatory double-tiered passport system for years.
“Chinese authorities should move swiftly to dismantle this blatantly discriminatory passport system,” Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in statement obtained by OnIslam.net.
“The restrictions also violate freedom of belief by denying or limiting religious minorities’ ability to participate in pilgrimages outside China.”
According to a HRW report, the two-track system for issuing passports for religious minorities like Muslims and Tibetans requires these groups to provide far more extensive documentation than other citizens in the country.
Titled, “One Passport, Two Systems: China’s Restrictions on Foreign Travel by Tibetans and Others,” the 53-page-report compared the fast a fast-track system is available for ethnic Chinese majority to the slow-track system which is allowed for those in most ethnic and religious minority areas.
Preventing travel for certain forms of religious study and pilgrimage have been the mean reasons behind passport restriction for minorities since 2001, according to the HRW.
In the Muslim-dominated Xinjiang, at least two Hui autonomous areas have also been denied access to the fast-track system.
On its part, HRW said that China should ensure the criteria and procedures for issuing passports are the “same” for all citizens, immediately implement fast-track processing for minorities, and cease treating attendance at religious events or teachings abroad as unlawful activities.
“Chinese authorities seem to believe that systematically denying Tibetans’ rights to travel brings greater stability to the Tibet Autonomous Region,” Richardson said.
“But it’s respect for human rights – including equal access to passports – that might begin to reduce Tibetans’ distrust of the government.”
Beijing, which enforced a long-held claim to Tibet in 1950, claims a centuries-old sovereignty over the territory it governs as an autonomous region of China.
But the allegiances of Tibetans lie with the current Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile in northern India since 1959.
In a bid to avoid China’s control over the Tibet, the Dalai Lama handed his political responsibilities in 2011 to an elected leader of the Tibetan government in exile, Lobsang Sangay.
Oppression
The HRW report came a few days after Thailand deported dozens of ethnic minority Uighur Muslim back to China, drawing fierce criticism from several countries.
Accused of intending to “join jihad” in Turkey, Syria or Iraq, 109 Muslim Uighurs may face execution or torture and deportation.
The deportation of the Chinese Muslims has sparked condemnation by human rights groups, including the UN and the EU.
“Time and time again we have seen Uighurs returned to China disappearing into a black hole, with some detained, tortured and in some cases, sentenced to death and executed,” Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty International’s East Asia regional director said, the Independent reported.
A similar condemnation was shared by unai Phasuk, a Thailand researcher at Human Rights Watch, who told Reuters: “By forcibly sending back at least 90 Uighurs, Thailand has violated international law. In China they can face serious abuses including torture and disappearance."
Describing China’s allegations as “total lies”, the World Uighur Congress (WUC) said many of the group, which includes 20 women, now face torture and “maybe some will be executed.”
Uighur Muslims are a Turkish-speaking minority of eight million in the northwestern Xinjiang region.
Xinjiang, which activists call East Turkestan, has been autonomous since 1955 but continues to be the subject of massive security crackdowns by Chinese authorities.
Rights groups accuse Chinese authorities of religious repression against Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang in the name of counter terrorism.
Earlier in 2014, Xinjiang banned the practicing of religion in government buildings, as well as wearing clothes or logos associated with religious extremism.
In August, the northern Xinjiang city of Karamay prohibited young men with beards and women in burqas or hijabs from boarding public buses.
Police have also raided women’s dress shops in the province to confiscate full length robes, AP reported.
In 2013, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement – which is listed as a terrorist group by the UN – produced 107 terror-related audio and video materials.
Comments
Send your comment