A birthday is usually cause for celebration with friends and family. Tragically, no such celebration will take place today, June 12, for Gulshan Abbas and her family. This is because June 12 marks the fifth birthday that Dr. Abbas will spend locked behind the walls of a Chinese “reeducation” camp. Dr. Abbas is Uyghur and a retired physician who served her community faithfully and peacefully for many years before she was disappeared in 2018 without warning. She later resurfaced in an internment camp, where she has been held for nearly five years. Her only crime is that she is Uyghur, as well as the sister of Uyghur activist Rushan Abbas, who is based in the United States.

Earlier this year, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention released an opinion on Dr. Abbas’ case, which finds that she and two other prisoners were arrested and detained on the basis of being Uyghur Muslims. The opinion calls on the Chinese government to release them immediately. The Lantos Foundation echoes this call for Dr. Abbas’ immediate release and urges human rights groups, members of Congress, and officials in the Biden administration to join us in speaking out forcefully against this injustice.

For five birthdays, Dr. Abbas has been robbed of her freedom. For five birthdays, she has been unable to celebrate or even communicate with her loved ones. We must stand up to the Chinese government’s arbitrary and illegal detainment of Dr. Abbas, and so many other Uyghur prisoners. We must demand that this be the last birthday Dr. Abbas is forced to mark a milestone alone, isolated and unjustly imprisoned.