Turkey deports Uighur Muslims back to China via third countries: Reports

Chinese government has already attracted widespread criticism for its treatment of Uighurs in the northwest region of Xinjiang, where up to one million members of mostly Muslim Turkic-speaking minority groups are held in internment camps.

China's government considers many members of the Uighur ethnic minority to be "terrorists" and "separatists." It has imprisoned them on a mass scale and has turned Xinjiang into one of the world's most tightly controlled police states.

According to a report of The Telegraph, Turkey is helping China repatriate Uighur Muslims by sending them to third countries from which they can be extradited by Beijing. The Telegraph documented several cases in which Turkey had sent Uighurs to countries like Tajikistan, where it is easier for China to secure their extradition.

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China has stridently maintained that Uighurs and Xinjiang affairs are its internal matter. China is taking extreme measures to silence anyone who speaks out against its government.

Reports leaked last month suggested that China detained Muslim minority Uighurs for beards, wearing veils, visiting foreign countries and having "too many" children.

Uighurs' birth rates have dropped by more than 60 per cent from 2015 to 2018. Across the Xinjiang region, birth rates fell 24 per cent last year as compared to just 4 per cent in the rest of the country.

Beijing has maintained that vocational training being carried is meant to help stamp out Islamist extremism and separatism and to teach locals new skills.

(With inputs from agencies)