Germany deported Uyghur to China in bureaucratic bungle

Germany deported Uyghur to China in bureaucratic bungle

Germany deported a Uyghur woman back to China rather than to Turkey after a bureaucratic mix-up, government sources said Monday, with critics slamming a "huge blunder" that endangered her life.

The woman, Reziwanguli Baikeli, was only in Beijing for a short time after her deportation last week, and managed to quickly leave again for Turkey, news magazine Der Spiegel reported.

But the fact she was sent to China -- despite an immigration order to deport her to Turkey, where she had lived previously, and official guidance to protect Uyghurs -- sparked condemnation.

"It's a blatant human rights violation and greatly endangered the lady," Adrian Zenz, an expert on China's northwestern region of Xinjiang, home to the mostly Muslim Uyghu