World Uyghur Congress calls for an end to persecution of Uyghur activists’ families amid Chinese crackdown

The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) has issued a forceful appeal for the Chinese government to cease its persecution of the families of Uyghur activists, citing ongoing human rights abuses.

In a recent post on X (formerly Twitter), WUC stated, “The WUC calls on the Chinese government to end the persecution of family members of Uyghur activists. This is part of transnational repression. WUC’s former President Dolkun Isa has faced those threats for over 30 years because of his activism.”

The WUC’s statement follows a post from the official Xinjiang Victims Database account, which shared a translated transcript from Radio Free Asia’s Uyghur News. The transcript included recorded calls to police and administrative offices in Aksu, Xinjiang, confirming the life imprisonment of Hushtar, the brother of Dolkun Isa.

Dolkun Isa, the current leader of the WUC, responded to this revelation, sharing his own harrowing experience. He stated, “My younger brother Hushtar disappeared in 2016. I later learned from RFA about his sentence. My older brother Yalqun was sentenced to at least 17 years. My mother died in a concentration camp, in 2018. My dad passed away in 2020. I have no information about the circumstances. That’s the only news I heard from my family since 2017. Their only crime was being Uyghur and being related to me. I need international support to save the rest of my family! Family members of HRDs shouldn’t face such atrocities.”

Isa’s testimony paints a stark picture of the Chinese government’s tactics of targeting the relatives of Uyghur activists, reflecting a pattern of collective punishment aimed at silencing human rights defenders. The WUC’s call to action highlights the urgent need for international advocacy to address these injustices and protect Uyghur families who remain vulnerable to state repression.

The Uyghur community has faced an array of documented human rights violations in Xinjiang, prompting widespread condemnation from the international community. Central to these abuses is the detention of over a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in “re-education camps,” where detainees face harsh conditions, forced labour, and relentless political indoctrination.

In Xinjiang, the Chinese government has reportedly built a comprehensive surveillance state, employing facial recognition, biometric data collection, and community monitoring to control the region’s residents. This heavy-handed surveillance creates an atmosphere of fear and isolation, as community members are encouraged to report on each other. Additionally, cultural and religious suppression is prevalent, with Uyghur religious practices restricted, mosques destroyed, and Uyghur children often placed in state-run educational institutions to assimilate them into Han Chinese culture.

The crisis extends to forced labour, with Uyghurs reportedly coerced into harsh working conditions across multiple industries, some of which are tied to global supply chains. This systematic repression of Uyghurs by the Chinese state has drawn urgent calls for intervention, as the WUC, alongside other international bodies, continues to press for accountability and justice for Uyghur families facing persecution.