Hong Kong on Saturday “strongly condemned” rights group Amnesty International after it said that a Uighur man had gone missing after arriving at the territory’s airport.
The group on Friday said in a statement that Abuduwaili Abudureheman, born in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang, traveled from South Korea to Hong Kong on May 10 to visit a friend and had not been heard from since.
His final communication was a brief text to his friend waiting at the airport saying “Chinese police are asking me questions,” a message shown to Agence France-Presse (AFP) by Amnesty International showed.
Photo: AP
In a statement late on Saturday, the Hong Kong government said Amnesty International’s claims were “groundless and unfounded” and “slandered the human rights situation” in the territory.
“The records of the HKSAR [Hong Kong Special Administrative Region] government show that the person has not entered or been refused entry by Hong Kong,” a spokesperson said, demanding an apology from the group.
Amnesty International said that the group “will remain concerned for [Abudureheman’s] safety” and that his friend is still unable to contact him.
The friend, who requested anonymity for safety concerns, said on Saturday that Abudureheman flew to Hong Kong for a visit, despite the friend’s skepticism.
“He miscalculated ... he did not understand the grave consequences,” the friend said.
The text message attributed to Abudureheman — which AFP has not been able to independently verify — was written in simplified Chinese and told his waiting friend to leave without him.
“I’m being checked, Chinese police are asking me questions, and it may take time for me to get out,” the message read.
The friend said Abudureheman had a track record of being “held back for questioning” when traveling to China and so did not think much of it.
A day after receiving the message and hearing nothing, the friend contacted Hong Kong Immigration Department authorities, but did not get much additional information, they said.
Abudureheman was on a Cathay Pacific flight from Seoul to Hong Kong that was scheduled to land at 11pm on May 10, Amnesty International said.
Cathay Pacific did not respond to questions about whether he was on board.
Abudureheman, who completed a doctorate degree at Seoul’s Kookmin University last year, was on a Chinese government “watch list” because of his history of overseas travel, the rights group said earlier.
Chinese authorities are increasingly pressuring Uighurs outside its borders and have, in some cases, forced their repatriation, Amnesty International said.
Alkan Akad, Amnesty International’s China researcher, said in the statement that the “unknown fate of Abuduwaili Abudureheman is deeply worrying.”
“That Abuduwaili appears to have been detained on arrival and interrogated raises questions about the potential complicity of the Hong Kong government in human rights violations being committed against Uighurs by the Chinese government,” he said.
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