Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the statement by the Assistant United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees that deportations of Uyghurs to China are “a flagrant violation of international law”, as reported by The New York Times on 10 November; whether they have raised this issue at the UN Human Rights Council or the UN General Assembly; and if not, why not.

This Government stands firm on human rights, including over Xinjiang, where China continues to persecute and arbitrarily detain Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities. We raise our concerns at the highest levels: the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary both raised human rights recently with their Chinese counterparts President Xi and Foreign Minister Wang. We continue to coordinate efforts with our international partners to hold China to account: we joined a statement led by Australia at the UN General Assembly last month, and joined a statement led by the USA at the Human Rights Council in September. Both statements noted evidence of torture in Xinjiang, among other human rights violations. The UK is committed to upholding the principle of non-refoulement and has repeatedly called on other countries to respect their obligations under international human rights law, including under the Convention Against Torture.