While Uyghurs have been allowed to apply for passports and briefly reunite with family members, a slight improvement compared to the widespread confiscation of Uyghurs’ passports since 2016, the “Chinese government continues to deny Uyghurs their right to leave the country, restrict(s) their speech and associations when abroad, and punish(es) them for having foreign ties,” said Yalkun Uluyol, China researcher at Human Rights Watch.

Uluyol told VOA that Beijing uses travel restrictions to maintain control over the Uyghur community at home and abroad and attempts to create “a public image of normalcy” in Xinjiang.

Since 2017, China has put more than a million Uyghurs into internment camps, according to Amnesty International. In 2022, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights said Beijing’s treatment of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang may constitute “crimes against humanity.”