Skip to main content

Eurasianet

Main Menu

  • Regions
  • Topics
  • Media
  • About
  • Search
  • Newsletter
  • русский
  • Support us
X

Caucasus

Armenia
Azerbaijan
Georgia

Central Asia

Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan

Conflict Zones

Abkhazia
Nagorno Karabakh
South Ossetia

Eastern Europe

Belarus
Moldova
Russia
The Baltics
Ukraine

Eurasian Fringe

Afghanistan
China
EU
Iran
Mongolia
Turkey
United Kingdom
United States
X

Environment

Economy

Politics

Kazakhstan's Bloody January 2022
Kyrgyzstan 2020 unrest

Security

Society

American diplomats in Central Asia
Arts and Culture
Coronavirus
Student spotlight
X

Visual Stories

Podcast
Video

Blogs

Tamada Tales
The Bug Pit

Podcasts

EurasiaChat
Expert Opinions
The Central Asianist
X
You can search using keywords to narrow down the list.
Kazakhstan, Central Asia, China

Kazakhstan: Xinjiang Kazakh finds haven in Europe

Nur-Sultan had declined to grant Sauytbay asylum.

Almaz Kumenov Jun 3, 2019
Sayragul Sauytbay, an ethnic Kazakh and Chinese citizen, sits enclosed in the glass cage reserved for defendants at her trial in Zharkent in 2018. (Photo: Almaz Kumenov) Sayragul Sauytbay, an ethnic Kazakh and Chinese citizen, sits enclosed in the glass cage reserved for defendants at her trial in Zharkent in 2018. (Photo: Almaz Kumenov)

An ethnic Kazakh woman wanted by authorities in China for disclosing information about prison camps in the western Xinjiang autonomous region has been allowed to leave Kazakhstan and resettle in Sweden.  

Aiman Umarova, the lawyer for Sayragul Sauytbay, who accompanied her to the airport in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s former capital, on June 3, wrote effusively about the development.

“Goodbye Sayragul! May your life go smoothly,” Umarova wrote on Facebook. “Remember that you are a real Kazakh woman, even though you may have not been treated decently by certain officials.”

Sauytbay’s departure from Kazakhstan will be greeted with relief by authorities in Nur-Sultan, who never quite felt comfortable dealing with her case.

Sauytbay last April fled to Kazakhstan from China. She was detained by security services after she was found to have crossed the border on a fake passport. Once on Kazakh soil, she revealed that she had been subjected to persecution in China, where many hundreds of thousands of people from mainly Islamic ethnic groups have been rounded up and confined in re-education camps. Beijing accuses Sauytbay of spying.

Sauytbay was in August handed a suspended sentence by a court in the eastern town of Zharkent, meaning that she was allowed to walk free. The judge also ruled that Sauytbay would not be liable for deportation, as normally required by law in such cases.

At the same time, Kazakhstan has rebuffed her legal pleas to be granted asylum. With her move to Sweden, she will be able to apply for asylum there.

Nur-Sultan’s reluctance to approve asylum status for Sauytbay springs from its desire to avoid infuriating Beijing. At the same time, the Kazakh government has had to contend with the potential of generating domestic anger by leaving Sauytbay at the possible mercy of Chinese authorities. The desire to avoid flashpoints for public discontent are being felt especially acutely in the run-up to the June 9 presidential election.

Almaz Kumenov is an Almaty-based journalist.

Sign up for Eurasianet's free weekly newsletter. Support Eurasianet: Help keep our journalism open to all, and influenced by none.

Related

Afghanistan: Grappling with fall-out of dwindling foreign aid
Memoir: Recollecting the benefits of shoe leather diplomacy in Turkmenistan
Turkmen leader touts trade and investment during French trip

Popular

Afghanistan: Grappling with fall-out of dwindling foreign aid
Kremlin brings Abkhazia back into fold
Irakli Machaidze
Azerbaijan-Russia feud: back on front-burner

Eurasianet

  • About
  • Team
  • Contribute
  • Republishing
  • Privacy Policy
  • Corrections
  • Contact
Eurasianet © 2025