Remained in China, the wife of a Uyghur refugee from Belgium was turned back from the Belgian embassy in Beijing by Chinese police. A diplomatic imbroglio that could make waves as the Uyghur community is subjected to persecutions in China.

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Demonstration in New York for the liberation of the Uighurs on February 5, 2019 (illustration). TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP

Remained in China, the wife of a Uyghur refugee from Belgium was turned back from the Belgian embassy in Beijing by Chinese police. A diplomatic imbroglio that could make waves as the Uyghur community is subjected to persecutions in China.

Her husband, Ablimit Tursun, has been a refugee in Belgium since December 2017 and has filed for family reunion for his wife and children aged 5 to 17 years. His wife had to produce a number of documents including a marriage certificate, so she went to the Belgian Embassy in Beijing to bring the necessary documents to her file.

According to the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she should have sent these documents by mail, but still she came to the embassy physically on May 28th.

The real black spot in this case is the entry of Chinese police on the site of the Belgian Embassy in Beijing, reports our correspondent in Brussels, Pierre Benazet . Such a site benefits in theory from extraterritoriality, that is to say somehow from a diplomatic immunity that does not allow the authorities of the host State to enter without invitation.

However, there was no denial on the part of the Belgian Foreign Ministry that Chinese police entered the site to take Wureyetiguli Abula and his four children. According to some sources, the embassy staff called the police.

15 days today we have no news of Ablimit's family. Where are they? Why can not we contact them? https://t.co/xKslPdAruo

Vanessa Frangville (@ VanessaFrangvi1) June 15, 2019

It was four o'clock in the morning when the events occurred and the Chinese police monitoring the embassy was able to witness the previous scene because Wureyetiguli Abula had somehow made a sit-in in the grip of the embassy but in outside the buildings themselves.

Since her husband, who had no direct contact with her, has just learned that the family has returned home and that his wife is under house arrest. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not say whether Belgium grants asylum to many Uyghurs, but if so, there is apparently an absolute stint of discretion.

► To listen also: Harassments, threats, disappearances: the Uyghurs of France live in fear