“I hope Australia will accept them. I think they’ve been freed from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. I think Palau is a stepping stone to a country where they can really be free. Not only free but to enjoy the freedom that we all enjoy to live in the free world – to marry, to have friends, to work, to socialize,” the president said in an interview.
The president said that one of the Uighur has recently got married to a lady who belongs to the Uighur community in Australia.
Australia has a large Uighur community and the six men have earlier expressed desire to settle permanently in the said country.
“When they first arrived I think they felt for the first time after seven or eight years the enjoyment of individual freedom, physical freedom from physical confinement. They are free here but we don’t have a Uighurs community here. And as you know being physically free is not enough. You must have social relationships,” Toribiong said.
Adham Nabi, one of the Uighur temporarily settling in Palau told the Australian Network that he is awaiting approval from the Australian government after getting married to an Australian Uighur.
Nabi and his new bride and her two daughters are in Palau.
In the same interview, Abdul Ghappar said Australia is a big country and would feel much safer in a place where there is a Uighur community.
“We need to go to Australia because Australia is a big country. If we go to Australia we feel we will be safe. And in Australia there are Muslims and a Uighur community. Palau is a very small country, no Uighurs. There are no Uighurs,” Abdul told Australian Network.
Since the Uighurs arrived here in November 2009, they are slowly starting to settle into the Palau life.
The former detainees are continually attending English classes at the Palau Community College.
The Australian Uighur translator that the government hired to help them is gone and they have to learn to communicate without him.
Although most of the Uighurs has yet to fully converse in English, their understanding of the language has improved.
The Uighurs were held at Guantanamo Bay for more than seven years despite being cleared of all charges. They said they had fled to Afghanistan to escape persecution from China, which wants the men returned home to be tried, saying they belong to an Islamic separatist movement.
