Germany has deported a Uyghur man to China, his mother says

Germany has deported a Uyghur man to China where there are concerns he could be detained as a member of an ethnic group that has been targeted by the Chinese government, his mother told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Arafat Adil, 21, a dual Chinese-Turkish national who has lived in Turkey with his family since they moved there from China in 2017 and who was seeking asylum in Germany, was deported from the Frankfurt Airport on Tuesday, said his mother, Guzelay Adil.

Arafat Adil landed Wednesday morning in Beijing where he was taken into custody and interrogated, Guzelay Adil said. She said she was hoping her son would be allowed to board a flight to Istanbul around midnight on Thursday. “I don’t know what would happen if my son doesn’t return to Turkey,” Guzelay Adil said from Istanbul in an interview. “I hope to see my child again.”

Authorities in Germany and China did not immediately confirm Arafat Adil’s deportation.

Word of the deportation raised concerns among Uyghur rights activists due to China’s yearslong campaign of assimilation in Xinjiang, its far western region that is home to over 11 million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities. In 2017, Beijing began a campaign of mass detention and alleged forced labor in the region, which was the site of sporadic episodes of unrest over the past few decades.

“It’s heartbreaking to learn of another Uyghur being deported to China,” said Abduweli Ayup, founder of the Norway-based nonprofit Uyghur Hjelp. He added that the “bad example” set by Germany as a leading member of the European Union is causing Uyghurs to lose hope “inside and outside of China.”

The Interior Ministry of the State of Hesse, where Frankfurt is located, did not immediately reply to an email from the AP requesting details about the deportation.

The German Interior Ministry said that in general there’s no suspension of deportations for Uyghurs to China but added that “however, the current guiding principle of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees provides that, as a rule, protection should be granted to Uyghurs in cases involving China as the country of origin.”

China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to questions about the case.

Arafat Adil’s family moved to Turkey in 2017, where he later obtained a Turkish passport in 2024, his mother said. She expressed confusion as to Germany’s decision to deport Arafat Adil to China instead of Turkey, as she said he held passports from both countries.

It was unclear on what grounds Arafat Adil was claiming asylum in Germany, which considers Turkey a safe country of origin.

Last November, Germany deported a Uyghur woman to China instead of Turkey after what government sources described to Der Spiegel magazine as a bureaucratic mix-up. The woman, Reziwanguli Baikeli, was only in Beijing for a short time before leaving for Turkey.

China has been pressuring other countries to deport Uyghurs who fled the country amid the detention campaign. In one of the most high-profile deportations to date, Thailand in February 2025 deported at least 40 Uyghurs to China.

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AP writer Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.