BEIJING (Web Desk) – Beijing bans Tibetans and Muslims from obtaining passports, Human Rights Watch said, amid a surge in Chinese tourists travelling abroad, Times of India reported.
Chinese authorities have created a two-tier system for areas populated by the country’s ethnic minorities, including Tibetan and Muslim minorities.
“If you are a religious minority who lives in a part of the country where most people are minorities, it’s virtually impossible to get a passport,” Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, said.
In most parts of China, a passport must be issued within 15 days, and if there is a delay the authorities must notify the applicant.
But in Tibet and Xinjiang, inhabited by 10 million Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority, officials use an older method for passport applications that requires more documents and sometimes political vetting, the report said.
