Kazakh truck driver disappears after Chinese border detention

Beijing [China] 29 Aug : A Kazakh truck driver has gone missing after being detained by Chinese border officials on July 23, sparking fresh fears about the safety of ethnic Kazakhs in Xinjiang.

According to Freedom for Eurasia, 47-year-old Alimnur Turganbay was apprehended at the Kalzhat-Dulata crossing while on a long-haul job transporting construction metals from China to Uzbekistan. His family in Uzynagash, near Almaty, has not heard from him since.

Speaking to Freedom for Eurasia, Turganbay was going to return after the end of a traditional 40-day period in which infants remain in their paternal family's household. "I'm afraid that my father will be beaten, forced to sign some documents and given some injections or dangerous medications."

The disappearance comes amid long-standing concerns about China's "Strike Hard" campaign in Xinjiang, which escalated in 2017. Human rights experts estimate that more than a million people, mainly Uyghurs and Kazakhs, were subjected to internment in so-called "re-education camps." Beijing has denied accusations of abuse, insisting that the facilities were vocational training centres designed to counter extremism.

Kazakhs, the second-largest Turkic minority in Xinjiang after Uyghurs, number around 1.5 million. Many with ties to Kazakhstan were caught up in the crackdown, particularly between 2017 and 2019.

Turganbay's detention particularly concerns his legal status. Though born in China, he became a Kazakh passport holder in 2017. He also holds a 2018 certificate proving he formally renounced Chinese citizenship, a document reissued in hard copy in 2023. His family and supporters argue that these facts should compel Kazakh authorities to act.

Both Kazakhstan and China have so far remained silent on his case. Freedom for Eurasia noted that similar detentions have often ended in prolonged disappearances, with families left in the dark for years.

For now, Turganbay's family waits anxiously, hoping his plight will not become another unresolved tragedy. As Freedom for Eurasia emphasised, each passing day without answers deepens the uncertainty and fear.

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