Turkish police have detained Akide Ismail, a 33-year-old Uyghur mother of two at her Istanbul home and taken her to a removal centre. Her family fears deportation to China where Uyghurs face severe persecution. Her case raises troubling questions about Turkey’s treatment of Uyghurs and Beijing’s influence over countries offering them refuge. Ankara speaks forcefully against abuses elsewhere, yet appears far less willing to challenge China over the Uyghurs. This selective approach casts doubt on its commitment to human rights and fuels concerns that vulnerable Uyghurs are becoming bargaining chips in Turkey’s pursuit of closer ties with Beijing and its wider geopolitical interests.
What happened to Akide İsmail
According to the Uygur Haber news website, as relayed by the Stockholm Center for Freedom, plainclothes police detained İsmail at her home in İstanbul’s Sefaköy district on Tuesday. She held a valid residence permit. Her family says police gave no reason. Reports have not named the removal centre where she is held
İsmail was born in Aksu in Xinjiang. She works as a Quran teacher in Sefaköy and is the main provider for her two children and two younger brothers. One child reportedly has a kidney condition. It is unclear whether a deportation order exists or what legal grounds are being used. Turkey’s Yeni Şafak reported that officials had given no formal explanation, and that her family wants the detention clarified quickly so she can return to her children.
A pattern of pressure on Uyghurs in Turkey
Turkey’s estimated 50,000 Uyghurs, the world’s largest diaspora, face growing barriers to residency and safety. Many fled Xinjiang, where rights groups and UN experts describe mass arbitrary detention, torture and other abuses as possible crimes against humanity. In November 2025, Human Rights Watch reported opaque “restriction codes” limiting residency, degrading detention conditions and pressure to sign “voluntary return” forms, risking removal to countries with Chinese extradition agreements.
One interviewee was deported to the UAE. Citing HRW, Le Monde reported at least five attempted deportations and news reports of 33 Uyghurs detained between December 2018 and October 2025. Turkey denies direct deportations to China, but these practices undermine Uyghurs’ rights and expose people seeking refuge to renewed danger beyond Turkey’s borders. It is evident that these detentions are due to external pressure.
The treaty and the legal principle
A Turkey–China extradition treaty, signed in 2017, has not been ratified by Turkey’s parliament. Critics fear it could be used against the diaspora. Voice of America reported that Turkish and Chinese officials dismissed claims that the treaty opens a route for deporting Uyghurs.
Rights groups say sending Uyghurs to China would breach non-refoulement, the principle barring return to places where people face a real risk of persecution or torture. HRW urged Ankara to stop deporting Uyghurs to third countries and to recognise them as refugees on a prima facie basis.
For many Uyghurs, leaving China has not brought the safety they hoped for. Across the diaspora, fear of detention, deportation and pressure from Beijing continues to shadow lives already marked by displacement. In Turkey, Akide İsmail’s detention shows how fragile that refuge can be even for someone with a valid residence permit and children who depend on her. Ankara must protect Uyghurs’ rights, explain such detentions and ensure that nobody is sent, directly or through another country, to face persecution. Yet against these odds, Uyghurs continue to speak out, support their families and defend their identity. Their struggle for dignity and freedom endures, demanding action from governments whose promises of protection must mean more than words when lives are threatened and human rights are violated.
