Violation of the rights of the child in the case of four Uighur children turned away by the Italian authorities in China

Question for written answer  E-001975/2021
to the Commission
Rule 138
Anna Bonfrisco (ID)

In 2016, Ablikim Mamtinin and his wife Mihriban Kader, both Uighurs, declared they had fled from Xinjiang after Ms Kader became pregnant with her sixth child, because of bans imposed by Chinese family planning policies.

After arriving in Italy, they finally managed in 2020 to track down again the children they had left behind in Xinjiang.

Documents authorising visas for the four children had been approved by the Italian Government in 2019 but when their children went to the Italian consulate in Shanghai to collect the visas, they were apparently blocked by one of the building’s Chinese security guards.

Consulate officials then directed the children to another office. Here they were refused visas on the grounds that this office did not recognise the documents and that minors must be accompanied by adults. They were told instead to apply to Beijing, which was in lockdown at the time.

The children have now been seized and placed in a state-sponsored orphanage.

In light of the above, will the Commission demand an explanation from the Chinese and Italian authorities of this unacceptable behaviour that breaches the Convention on the Rights of the Child?