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SYDNEY: An Australian from China’s Uighur Muslim community was reunited with his family, including a three-year-old son he had never met, after Beijing agreed that they could leave Xinjiang.
Saddam Abudusalamu posted on Twitter photos of his family arriving at Sydney airport on Thursday and thanked Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne, human rights activists and “everyone who worked so hard to bring us together.”
In 2017, the Chinese authorities prohibited Abudusalamu’s wife, Nadila Wumaier and their son from leaving Xinjiang by confiscating their passports, in what became a high-profile human rights case in Australia.
Abdusalamu had come to Australia as a student more than a decade ago and married Wumaier in Xinjiang in 2016. Their son Lufty was born in Xinjiang and received Australian citizenship in 2019, after Abdusalamu urged the Australian government to help the family.
In February, after China’s Deputy Chief of Mission in Australia Wang Xining told ABC Television that Wumaier did not want to leave Xinjiang, he posted a photo on Twitter with a banner reading ‘I want to go and be with my husband.’
Payne said in July that the Australian embassy in Beijing had formally requested the Chinese authorities to allow the departure of Wumaier, a Chinese national.
China has been criticized at the United Nations Human Rights Council by countries such as Australia and the United States for arbitrary detention and restrictions on the freedom of movement of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang. China has rejected the criticism.
The family’s lawyer, Michael Bradley, confirmed to Reuters that 3-year-old Lufty and his mother had arrived from China two weeks ago and had flown to Sydney on Thursday after being quarantined at a hotel in Brisbane.
Bradley, who was at the airport, said Abudusalamu was delighted to see his wife and meet their son.
“We are delighted that it ended this way. It’s been a long saga, “added Bradley.
