Uyghurs Face Deportation From Sweden

The two asylum seekers say they face persecution if they are returned to China. Authorities in Sweden are gearing up to deport two Muslim ethnic minority Uyghurs to China after their requests for political asylum were refused, sparking fears that they may face persecution on their return.

Merhaba Dilmurat, 23, said she had received notification from Swedish immigration officials in March that they planned to deport her, which she appealed.

Her appeal was recently rejected, and Dilmurat now fears she will be jailed for speaking out about government policies in her native Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region if she returns to China.

"If I go back to China, they will sentence me for using media articles to oppose the Chinese government," said Dilmurat, who is a native of Xinjiang's capital Urumqi, where many Uyghurs chafe under Chinese rule.

Activists in Sweden have campaigned for several weeks on behalf of Dilmurat and fellow asylum-seeker Tughluq Hemit, whose deportation notice was also served in March.Hemit said he had fled to Sweden in 2009 following deadly ethnic clashes between Han Chinese and Uyghurs in Urumqi in early July, after which many of his friends were detained. (...)