(Ottawa) MPs voted unanimously for Ottawa to launch a program to welcome 10,000 Uyghur refugees fleeing persecution in China.
“This motion is important for Canada, but also for the international community, including the Uighur peoples. It is now clear that we do not accept human rights abuses against the Uyghur people. We are together, united, today, to protect these peoples,” rejoiced Liberal MP Sameer Zuberi.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us, and we will do it,” he said.
The elected representative of the Montreal region had proposed, last June, a motion to call on the government to develop a plan within 100 days of parliamentary sitting to provide for the reception of 10,000 Uyghurs and other Muslims of Turkish origin in Canada. .
This therefore gives Ottawa until the fall to outline a program which, according to the motion, should begin in 2024 and reach its goal within two years.
The goal will be to target people currently living in countries like Turkey, rather than directly in China, since, as Mr. Zuberi explained, there is no safe way to bring Uyghurs to Canada directly from China.
MPs passed the motion unanimously Wednesday in the House of Commons with 322 votes, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
After passing the motion, MPs from different parties shook hands and embraced each other. Mr. Zuberi raised his fist in the air, as dozens of people wearing traditional Uyghur clothes cheered from the stands reserved for the public.
Although private members’ motions are non-binding, Zuberi saw Prime Minister Trudeau’s support as proof that the government will really get involved in this file.
“It is a promise to the Canadian people and to the international community that we will do so,” he told reporters, flanked by Uyghur defenders.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reported last August that China was committing “serious human rights violations” against Uyghurs and that some who had fled to other countries had been “forcibly returned”. ”, although Beijing rejects this information.
The Commons passed a motion in February 2021 that recognized China’s treatment of the Uyghur people as genocide, although Prime Minister Trudeau’s cabinet abstained in the vote, arguing that more international investigations were needed.
Note to readers: In a version transmitted on Wednesday, The Canadian Press wrote that MP Zuberi had proposed a motion last June calling on the government to develop a plan within 100 days. However, it had to be specified that it was a question of 100 days of parliamentary sitting. As a result, the government will have until the fall to present a plan, not until May 12.