Uighurs harassed and abused by Beijing in UK, admits minister
THE Government has admitted for the first time that Uighurs in Britain are being targeted by China “to intimidate them into silence”.
The problem is now so serious it risks becoming a diplomatic incident after ministers complained directly to the Chinese embassy in London.
Last night, the Foreign Office urged British Uighurs to call the police immediately if they felt they were being intimidated by Chinese officials.
Concerns about the intimidation of British Uighurs on UK soil by Chinese officials were first exposed in The Sunday Telegraph last August. The latest development was condemned last night by campaigners who demanded greater protection for them.
More than a dozen MPs are expected to write to Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, tomorrow to demand an urgent question in the Commons.
It comes after global experts last week accused Beijing of violating every provision in the UN genocide convention for its treatment of the 12 million Uighurs, mostly Muslim, in Xinjiang province.
Official confirmation of the UK Government’s concerns was set out in an overlooked written answer in Parliament last week.
Nigel Adams, a Foreign Office minister, said: “We are aware of reports of members of the Uighur diaspora – including in the UK – being harassed by the Chinese authorities … to intimidate them into silence, force them to return to China, or co-opt them into providing information on other Uighurs.
“The Government regards such activity as unacceptable and has raised our concerns directly with the Chinese embassy in London.”
A Foreign Office source added: “We are in regular discussions with the Chinese embassy including on issues of concern.”
The scale of intimidation is laid bare today by Rahima Mahmut, the UK director for the World Uighur Congress, in an article for today’s Telegraph in which she tells how “today Uighurs in Britain are silenced”.
She tells how the Uighur exiles are ominously reminded of the vulnerability of their family members who remain in China.
Ms Mahmut has called for the UK to ban “goods made from Uighur forced labour”. The Uighur region produces 20 per cent of the world’s cotton.
And she wants the Government to stop blocking “the “genocide amendment” to the Trade Bill.
Afzal Khan, the Labour MP and vicechairman of the all-party parliamentary group on Uighurs, said: “The Government must raise this urgent matter with Chinese officials and offer witnesses protection to ensure they are able to testify safely, without fear, about the atrocities suffered.
“It is unacceptable that members of the Uighur diaspora in the UK and elsewhere are faced with harassment and abuse.
“Words of condemnation by the Government are not enough, action is desperately needed.”
The Chinese Embassy in London did not respond to several requests for comment from The Telegraph.
Separately, Dominic Raab yesterday said China was not complying with the Sino-British Joint Declaration after Beijing’s latest move to tighten control over Hong Kong with new powers to crack down on pro-democracy activists.
He said the move was part of a “pattern designed to harass and stifle all voices critical of China’s policies” and marked the third breach of the legally binding Joint Declaration in less than nine months.
The Sino-British Joint Declaration was signed in 1984.