Chinese man who filmed Xinjiang detention footage granted US asylum
A US immigration judge granted asylum to a Chinese national, Guan Heng, on Wednesday in Napanoch, New York, saying he had a "well founded fear" of persecution if returned to China after exposing alleged human rights abuses against Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Guan applied for asylum after arriving in the US illegally in 2021 and has been in custody since being swept up in an immigration enforcement operation in August last year, which the report describes as part of a mass deportation campaign by the Trump administration.
The Department of Homeland Security initially sought to deport Guan to Uganda but dropped that plan in December after his case drew public concern and attention on Capitol Hill. In 2020 Guan secretly filmed detention facilities in Xinjiang and released most of his footage on YouTube before taking a boat to Florida in October 2021.
He told the court through a translator that his aim was not to obtain asylum but that "I sympathised with the Uyghurs who were persecuted." He also told the Associated Press he knew he had to leave China to publish the footage and that police in China later questioned his father three times.
Judge Charles Ouslander said the court found Guan to be a credible witness and that he had established legal eligibility for asylum, noting Guan was right to fear retaliation because the Chinese government had questioned his family and inquired about his whereabouts and past activities.
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