“I have nothing”: Waleed Aly lost for words over father’s plight
Only a few short hours after a man discovered his wife had been arrested overseas, he appeared on The Project and left panellists speechless after sharing his plight.
Featuring on Monday night’s episode of Four Corners, Sadam Abudusalamu shed light on the distressing situation the Uyghur people are currently facing.
The ethnic group of Turkic-speaking Muslims are dealing with persecution by the Chinese government as the institution has been accused of ethnic cleansing.
Mr Adudusalamu has not seen his wife Nadila in two years as she’s been unable to leave the Xinjiang province, where the largest population of Uyghurs live. Due to this reason, he has never met his two-year-old son Lufty.
Shortly after the Four Corners episode went to air, Nadila was arrested and the devastated husband sat down with The Project to plead for her freedom.
“To be honest I don’t know what to say now – I told ABC this is going to happen, and it’s exactly happening because I am speaking out,” Mr Abudusalamu said on Tuesday evening.
A two-year-old Australian boy is caught in the middle of a human rights atrocity unfolding in China right now. His Australian dad wants him home but China won’t let him leave. #TheProjectTV pic.twitter.com/IPlw7WygsZ
— The Project (@theprojecttv) 16 July 2019
“(At) 3:30 (pm) Sydney time they just took my wife, and two-year-old baby, I don’t know where he is now … she just sent me a message (saying) police just called me, if I can’t come out, please take care of yourself.”
This prompted Waleed Aly to ask him whether he was comfortable opening up, due to the evident distress he was facing.
“Sadam, do you feel like you shouldn’t be talking to us?” asked Aly.
“No, I have to speak out, I’ve got nothing to lose anymore. Even if I don’t speak out nothing is going to change, so I have to speak out,” Mr Abudusalamu responded.
“I just can’t imagine how hard it is, not having ever seen your son let alone now not even knowing where he is,” added Carrie Bickmore.
The young father placed blame on the Australian government, saying they refuse to help due to trade interests with China and said he felt like “being a Muslim is a crime at the moment.”
“I’m living in Australia but feel like I’m under Chinese government pressure,” he said.
As the interview came to a close, Aly acknowledged that he didn’t have any words after hearing Mr Abudusalamu’s struggles.
“Sadam Abudusalamu, I don’t know, ordinarily I try to find something I could say to console you. I have nothing,” said Aly.
“There’s nothing I can say at this point except that we’re watching, we will watch with interest, I hope that it turns out in a way that’s far from the worst of the possibilities.
“I commend you on your bravery for speaking up and thank you very much for speaking to us tonight.”