A prominent Chinese human rights student working in Vancouver says her career and personal safety are in jeopardy due to an expired passport and delays in Canada’s immigration system.
Guldana Salimjan is a postdoctoral fellow at Simon Fraser University, who also directs the University of British Columbia. Xinjiang Documentation Project, a federally funded program documenting the internment of ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region of China. The project was referred to during the debates in Parliament.
Salimjan has a pending job at Indiana University in the United States, but there is no paperwork to cross the border between Canada and the US.
Fearing that the renewal of her Chinese passport would bring her to the attention of Chinese authorities who do not approve of her work, Salimjan has requested a unique Canadian travel document that could help her.
But so far, due to system issues, it has not.
The Indiana University campus in Bloomington. Guldana Salimjan says she has a pending job at the university, but no paperwork to cross the border between Canada and the United States. (Visit Bloomington)
In February, Salimjan applied to certificate of identity – a Canadian travel document for refugees, stateless persons and permanent residents who cannot obtain a passport from their country of origin – so that they can obtain an American visa to start working in August and reunite with their husband, who also teaches at Indiana University.
Salimjan, of Kazakh ethnicity in Xinjiang and a permanent resident of Canada, specified in his application that visiting the local consulate to renew his Chinese passport, which expired last year, means he would have to reveal his personal information. to the Chinese authorities.
She says she is afraid the Chinese government may use this information to harass her and her family in China, whom she has not visited since 2016.
“Because of my research … I know it will be very difficult for me to renew my Chinese passport,” he said.
An internment facility at the Artux Kunshan Industrial Park in Xinjiang. Guldana Salimjan is concerned that her investigation into the internment of Muslim minorities in the region in China is attracting the attention of Chinese authorities, leading to the potential harassment of her family in China. (Ng Han Guan / The Associated Press)
Salimjan says he hoped to receive the identity certificate promised by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship of Canada (IRCC) within 20 days of submitting your application.
But after making more than 20 inquiries at the federal agency, personally and with the help of local Liberal MP Terry Beech, he has not yet received the document.
“I don’t know when I will be able to get this document, which is really painful,” he said. “I am already separated from my family in Xinjiang, [and] now I will separate from my husband “.
“He often asks for an investigation of the person”
Last week, Salimjan also presented a letter of support signed by six professors from SFU and UBC, describing their need for the document for humanitarian reasons, in the hope of speeding up the application process.
Co-signer Darren Byler, an SFU anthropologist and senior editor of the Xinjiang Documentation Project, says Salimjan’s upcoming work at Indiana University could help expand the project in the United States, but argues that it should not renew its Chinese passport to get it. in America.
Byler cites the experience of other Xinjiang students at American universities, who received round-trip permits from the Chinese embassy to return to China to renew their passports, only to be taken to the detention camps on arrival.
Passengers from Urumqi Diwopu International Airport in Xinjiang photographed in September 2019. Darren Byler, senior editor of the Xinjiang Documentation Project, notes that many Xinjiang students at US universities have been taken to detention camps in return to the Chinese region to renew your passport. . (Hector Retamal / AFP via Getty Images)
“It is really not possible for her to renew her Chinese passport either through the consulate or through a return to China,” he said.
“It makes them very aware of your presence … it often provokes an investigation of the person.”
Co-signer Helen Leung, chair of the SFU’s gender studies department, where she teaches Salimjan, says the identity certificate is an indispensable document for people in exile.
He recalls that his parents fled China to Hong Kong during World War II, who did not have a passport, and traveled with an identity certificate issued by the British colonial government, until they became Canadian citizens.
“They were stateless, just like Guldana,” Leung said. “I understand the importance of having this document when you are essentially stateless.”
On Monday, to Salimjan’s surprise, IRCC sent him an email telling him that urgent services for applicants for identity certificates had been suspended until further notice, a detail Salimjan says he had not seen before. on the agency’s website.
“This is not acceptable”
The federal government recently promised to address the challenges related to applications for Canadian immigration status and travel documents.
Two weeks ago, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced one new federal working group to help address significant delays with immigration applications and passport processing, a situation he described as unacceptable.
NDP immigration critic and Vancover East MP Jenny Kwan says the Liberal government should also address what she calls “contradictory” information on the IRCC website, which does not immediately communicate to applicants. as Salimjan that expedited applications for identity certificates have been suspended.
“That’s not acceptable,” Kwan said.
NPD MP Jenny Kwan says the Liberal government should address what it says is contradictory information on the IRCC website, in addition to delays in processing travel documents. (Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press)
CBC News contacted IRCC on Monday to comment, asking Salimjan to sign a consent form that allowed the agency to disclose information to CBC about its request.
The signed consent form has been sent to IRCC along with the Salimjan application tracking number.
At the time of publication, IRCC has not yet commented on his case.
Meanwhile, with no solution in sight, Salimjan says she misses her husband.
“[It] It breaks my heart to think of my husband who only lives and works alone in Bloomington. “