A similar case recently happened in Germany, where the country’s authorities face heavy criticism after admitting that a 56-year-old Uyghur asylum-seeker was mistakenly put on a plane to China instead of to Turkey.
According to reports (one is here), the woman, Reziwanguli Baikeli, had fled China’s Xinjiang region in 2017, lived in Turkey for several years and joined her daughter in Germany in 2024. Uyghurs are recognised by Germany as a group at extreme risk of persecution; informal guidance says they should not be returned to China.
Experts call for Germany (and possibly the whole of Europe) for a federal “white list” of countries to which deportations are categorically barred, similar to policies already used in Sweden and the Netherlands.
How is that case similar?
Only in the sense that someone was deported with no consideration for their well being. Thats most deportations though.
There’s some more information about this and some other cases in this Dutch article from a while ago. It also mentions that they are still likely to have the option of migrating as a skilled worker or entrepreneur, but they considered requesting political asylum to be the correct route for now.
Thanks for sharing, here it is archived for those who aren’t subscribed to NRC: https://archive.is/BV2pu
Is this how the LGBT+ holocaust starts?
Starts?
over my dead body…
shit.
Asylum for the outcasts of the super rich?
Wealth is not relevant in the question of whether people deserve asylum, the relevant question is whether they are safe (enough). The dutch government doesn’t consider trans people in danger, because they aren’t prosecuted by theUS government. It would if the problems that cause asylumseekers to seek asylum are fixed at the source, but in this particular case I don’t see change happening anytime soon.
If you adk me, progressive European governments should across that the safety of these women and other non-cis people in the US continues to detriorate and and provide them citizenship or at least temporary residency. One part of this group is educated and done with their transition, and would make a great addition to the workforce; while the other part is young and in dire need of medical treatment they are not getting at home. Aside from these medical costs I assume there is only a small percentage that would need (long-term) financial assistance. But for any developed nation the cost should not be a point of discussion.
I do see how this could open the floodgates, since there are many countries where transpeople are not able to get treatment or live a normal life in relative safety. I can see how an invasion of transpeople would feel like a serious threat to some people, and i don’t think it’s fair to say rich countries should fix everybody’s problems just because there is money going around. That being said, transition rights are human rights and they deserve being fought for.
Wealth is not relevant in the question of whether people deserve asylum, the relevant question is whether they are safe
So far, so good.
And my next question is how to make that rich country pay the bills for the involuntary hotel guests.
There aren’t many people who can make a country do anything and i guess the richer the country is, the harder it gets. My power for example doesn’t reach much further than the ballot box.
But I guess your question is more along the lines of how I propose the country to pay for these people. To be honest, grasping the full economic picture behind policies concerning immigration is beyond my capabilities. But I can say that doing what is right often isn’t the same as doing what is financially to most profitable. Any country, like an individual, has to decide what’s worth paying for. For me personally, I wouldn’t want the government to let people in need in, if that meant an end to funding public broadcasting or public transport, pensions, etc.
But as I said, i don’t know what it would cost to help these people and neither do i know how much our society and economy would benefit from them being here. So instead i’ll just repeat my view of what is right: helping people in need, even if that requires a sacrifice.
