The Missing: Meet the families torn apart by China's crackdown on Uyghurs

Updated

The families torn apart by China's campaign of cultural genocide.

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This is Lutfy. He is an Australian citizen but he and his mother, Nadila, have been trapped in China's far-western Xinjiang region and banned from leaving ever since he was born.

Lutfy's father Sadam lives in Australia. He has never met his son and he hasn't seen his wife for two years. He's desperate for the Chinese government to let them leave Xinjiang and join him.

Sadam and his family are Uyghurs, a Muslim ethnic minority who have been rounded up, detained and forcibly indoctrinated by the Chinese government.

These Uyghurs live in Australia, but all of them are missing someone in Xinjiang.

It's estimated more than 1 million Uyghurs are being held in detention and re-education camps, with a UN committee saying the region resembles a "massive internment camp".

It appears to be the largest imprisonment of people on the basis of religion since the Holocaust.

Rukaiya, 4, and Abdulrahman, 5, are missing their mother and their six-year-old brother Imran.

Fatimah Abdulghafur is missing her entire family. This is the last photo they took together. Their phones have been disconnected.

Yakub Salay, 70, is missing his 42-year-old daughter Mahira. She is a widow with three children.

Almas Nizamidin's wife and mother have been arrested. His wife has now been sentenced to seven years in jail.

Horigul Yusuf, 53, is missing more than 30 relatives, including her two younger brothers and this younger sister.

Isia Wahas believes her only son Faruk is being held in a camp near Urumqi.

Yusuf Hussein is missing two brothers, three sisters and his 86-year-old father.

Shadiya Aziz is missing her 35-year-old brother.

Beijing is accused of attempting to re-engineer the thoughts, behaviour and beliefs of 11 million Uyghurs — to create a society loyal to the Communist Party and without a distinct identity.

Turshun Mollaisa, 69, is missing his nephew.

Yusuf Aziz and Nisa Abraham are both missing family members, including Yusuf's two sons from his first marriage. They are seven and four years old. His ex-wife has been taken to a camp.

Shawket Ablikem's wife is trapped in Kashgar. The Chinese authorities have seized her passport.

Sharon Hasan's younger sister Sharifa has been missing since 2017. She is afraid for the welfare of her sister's four-year-old daughter.

Dolkin Ablat, 44, is missing his four brothers.

Elminur, 21, is missing her cousin. He was the assistant imam at the mosque in the city of Ghulja. Islam has effectively been outlawed in Xinjiang.

Azmat Omarhoje, 37, is missing his father, stepmother, three brothers and two sisters. He says more than 20 of his nieces and nephews are also missing.

Credits

Reporter: Sophie McNeill

Photography and video: Ron Foley

Sound: Rob Mackay

Digital producer: Brigid Andersen

Designer: Georgina Piper

Producer: Jeanavive McGregor

Research: Meredith Griffiths, Michael Walsh, Echo Hui

阅读中文版本

Topics: world-politics, unrest-conflict-and-war, islam, religion-and-beliefs, community-and-society, australia, china

First posted