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Gulzira and family's arrival at the airport. |
ChinaAid Welcomes Kazakh Refugee Family
NEWS PROVIDED BY
China Aid Association
Feb. 9, 2021
MIDLAND, Texas, Feb. 9, 2021 /Christian
Newswire/ -- China
Aid Association welcomes Gulzira Auelkhan and her family to the United
States today where they have been granted humanitarian parole status.
Gulzira, a 41-year-old Kazakh woman, is a former detainee in the Chinese
Communist Party's concentration camp system in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous
Region. She was detained for 16 months in three separate camps where she
experienced both psychological and physical torture and witnessed a horrific
system of organized rape and forced prostitution.
Born in Xinjiang, she moved to Kazakhstan in 2014 and became a resident. In July
2017, she returned to China to visit her hometown where she was arbitrarily
arrested three days later. Accused of having "improper thoughts" after being
interrogated by Chinese police, she was sent to a 15 day "reeducation" which was
eventually extended to a year by a confession signed on her behalf by the head
of police without her knowledge.
Her time in the prisons was marked by extreme surveillance, emotional abuse, and
physical beatings at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party guards. According
to a recent shocking BBC
report, Gulzira was forced to strip female prisoners naked and handcuff them
in a room, before leaving them alone with Chinese men. Unable to intervene, she
said the Chinese men "would pay money to have their pick of the prettiest young
inmates."
Gulzira Auelkhan was detained in the camps on July 15, 2017 and released on
October 7, 2018. Forced to remain in Xinjiang by authorities, she was sent to
work in a glove factory only ten days after her release. In January 2019, she
was allowed to return to Kazakhstan and reunite with her family. ChinaAid and a
partner organization, Atajurt Kazakh Human Rights, helped relocate the family to
a third country and have been providing medical treatment and other recovery
support for Gulzira and her family.
An estimated 1-3 million Uyghurs, Kazarks and other Turkic ethnic minorities are
being held in "reeducation camps" for arbitrary reasons as simple as growing a
beard, wearing a veil, or having a home with a "dense religious atmosphere." On
January 19, 2021, the US Department of State declared the gross human rights
abuses committed by the Chinese government as genocide citing evidence of forced
sterilizations, torture, and an intricate forced labor system.
"We are thrilled to be able to have Gulzira, her husband, and their 7-year-old
daughter arrive safely in the United States with the help of ChinaAid's
sponsorship and the State Department's facilitation," Dr. Bob Fu, Founder and
President of ChinaAid, said of the family's arrival. He continued, "Gulzira's
courage in sharing her cruel treatment in the camps shows such admirable
resilience. After years of separation and unspeakable turmoil, I hope and pray
they will be able to find safety and rest in west Texas."
ChinaAid will continue to work with government agencies and other NGOs to
protect the victims of the Chinese Communist Party's war on religion and walk
with the persecuted faithful.
SOURCE China Aid Association
CONTACT: ChinaAid Media Team, 432-689-6985,
media@chinaaid.org;
General inquiries:
info@chinaaid.org