Protect Uyghurs from COVID-19 – responding to your MP

David Linden, MP for Glasgow East, shares how we can write to our MP in a way that gets their attention, and also the importance of being a good witness by writing with “love, grace and patience”.

Thank you so much for writing to your MP on this important issue. Following up that first letter up with a second letter is one of the most effective ways to get your MP to act. It shows that we won’t give up on such a vital issue and it requires a next level of response from your MP and others.

General points 

• Make sure you include your name and address so that your MP can refer to your previous correspondence.
• Refer again to the reply from your MP and try to respond to any specific points they mention.
• You can find your MP’s contact details here

Below is a template for you to follow. Feel free to also include your own personal reflections and feelings.

To begin:

• If your MP replied, thank them for their reply (and include the date you received their reply and remind them that the subject of the letter was Uyghurs in re-education camps in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China, and the specific danger to them of COVID-19). 
• If they did not reply, refer to your original email or letter and the date (we emailed supporters to take action on 1 April). 

Reiterate your concerns about the camps:

• It’s hard to believe that at least one million people – the equivalent of the whole population of Birmingham [use a local example if you can], for example – have been placed into camps because of their religion and ethnicity. 
• I find it extremely concerning that inside the camps detainees are required to renounce Islam and promise not to follow religion. Detainees have been forced to eat pork or drink alcohol, against their religious beliefs.
• I’m pleased that in March, the Foreign Secretary directly raised these concerns with his Chinese counterpart and the UK used its national statement  to raise concerns about systematic human rights violations and reports of forced labour in Xinjiang.
• However, I’m concerned that the situation has not improved; also, there are credible reports of people in the camps being forced to work in factories against their will , or being forcibly transferred to factories across China, cut off from their families, communities, culture and religion 

Ask your MP:

• As I asked in my previous letter, please can you write to the Foreign Secretary raising these concerns? What is the next step in the UK government’s strategy for addressing this? Are these human rights concerns being raised in the trade talks  with China?