Uighur students in limbo after crackdown in Egypt
Many are wondering what is behind Egyptian authorities' arrest of Chinese Uighurs studying at Al-Azhar.
CAIRO — Mehmet Nur has been hiding out, spending time in mosques, living at friends’ houses and avoiding police at all costs since Egyptian authorities began a crackdown on Uighur residents, arresting scores of them in July.
“I am waiting to see what will happen to the detained students,” Nur, a Uighur student at Al-Azhar University, told Al-Monitor after requesting a pseudonym for security reasons. “Will they be released and allowed to move on with their studies, or will they be deported? I have to wait to see if I can enroll in university next semester.”
According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Egyptian police rounded up at least 62 Uighurs in Cairo on July 3 at the apparent request of the Chinese government. The New York Times reported on July 6 that Egyptian aviation sources had revealed that authorities had deported 12 members of the community and detained another 22 “for immediate deportation.”
On the night of the raids, Nur was lucky to have been praying at a mosque far from Nasr City’s Hay al-Sabea neighborhood, where most foreign Al-Azhar students reside. “We have a WhatsApp group, and a friend warned us not to go home or to a Uighur restaurant in that area,” Nur said. “Police raided the restaurant and then arrested some students at their homes nearby. I stayed out that night and ended up waiting under a building.”
