Uighur families reunite in Australia after three years apart

Sadam Abdusalam, an Australian citizen, was reunited with his wife, Nadila Wumaier, and three-year-old son, Lutfy, in Melbourne on Thursday after three years of campaigning and campaigning.

After diplomatic negotiations, the family was allowed to leave China. Umer, an ethnic Uighur Muslim from China, said she had been under house arrest.

The family shared photos of their emotional meeting at Melbourne airport on Friday. Abdusalam has never met his son, who was born in 2017. “Thank you Australia, thank you everyone,” he said on Twitter.

In 2016, Abdusalam traveled to China to marry his girlfriend at the time, Ummel. He returned to Work in Australia in 2017, while Ummel waited in China for a spouse’s visa. Ummel gave birth that same year, and the Chinese government denied Abdusalam a visa to enter China.

Ms. Hummel was detained by Chinese authorities for two weeks shortly after giving birth, her family said. She was later released, but her passport was confiscated and she was banned from leaving her home.

In the past two years, Australia has formally asked China to allow them to leave. Although Ummel is not an Australian citizen, their son has become one at Abdusalam’s request.

Chinese authorities said in February that Chinese law did not recognize the couple’s marriage and that Ummel wanted to stay in China.

But hours after a Chinese embassy official made the remarks on an Australian television show, Abdeslam tweeted a picture of his wife and children holding a white piece of paper with the words: “I want to leave and be with my husband.”

Abdusalam’s family arrived in Sydney after a 48-hour journey that took them through Shanghai, Hong Kong, Port Moresby and Brisbane.