Karakalpak activist Koshkarbai Toremuratov has said he was deported by Austria to Poland after Vienna refused to grant him political asylum.
Nazgul Seitbek of the Vienna-based Freedom for Eurasia group said on March 1 that Toremuratov, an Uzbek citizen, was currently in immigration detention at the Warsaw airport, where he applied for asylum.
However, another Karakalpak activist, Nauryzbai Menlibaev, told RFE/RL that Polish authorities ordered Toremuratov to leave the country within 30 days.
Seitbek said human rights lawyers were currently working to provide Toremuratov with legal assistance.
The 48-year-old Toremuratov, a leader of the Karakalpak diaspora in Kazakhstan, went to Poland last fall to take part in a conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), where he emphasized what he called the "discrimination" against Karakalpaks in his native Autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan, which is part of Uzbekistan.
Toremuratov then travelled to Austria, where he applied for political asylum. In mid-February, he was officially informed that his request for asylum in Austria had been rejected.
Before travelling to Europe, Toremuratov spent one year in a detention center in Kazakhstan after he was detained at Uzbekistan's request. Uzbek officials accuse Toremuratov of "posing a threat to Uzbekistan's constitutional order," which Toremuratov and his supporters reject as politically motivated.
Although he was released last fall, Toremuratov says he might be detained in Kazakhstan again and extradited to Uzbekistan, where he says he will face arbitrary arrest and persecution for his activities defending the rights of Karakalpaks.
Toremuratov is one of several Karakalpak activists who spent as much as a year in detention in Kazakhstan after they were arrested at Uzbekistan's request but then later released.
Last month, another Karakalpak activist, Aqylbek Muratov (aka Muratbai), who has resided in Kazakhstan for 10 years, was arrested in Kazakhstan at Uzbekistan's request.
The arrests of Karakalpak activists in Kazakhstan were linked to mass rallies in the region's capital, Nukus, in July 2022. Thousands protested against Tashkent's plans to change the constitution that would have undermined the republic's right to self-determination.
SEE ALSO: Life Changes For Karakalpaks In Kazakhstan Since Deadly Crackdown In HomelandThe protests were violently dispersed. Uzbek authorities said at the time that 21 people died during the protests, but the Freedom for Eurasia group said at least 70 people were killed during the unrest.
Last year, an Uzbek court sentenced dozens of Karakalpak activists to lengthy prison terms on charges including undermining the constitutional order for taking part in the protests.
The violence forced Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev to make a rare about-face and scrap the proposal.
Karakalpaks are a Central Asian Turkic-speaking people. Their region used to be an autonomous area within Kazakhstan before becoming autonomous within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1930 and then part of Uzbekistan in 1936.