Elijan was detained in May 2017, according to his daughter interviewed by Amnesty International and now resident in the USA. The last time she spoke briefly with her father, in May 2017, he seemed worried and asked her to send him any documents about her status when she was a student in Turkey. She believes that the Chinese police made him ask this question.
Elijan’s daughter was informed about her father’s detention in an internment camp by a friend living in China, but she was not able to gather any official information from the Chinese authorities about his case, the reasons behind the detention and whether Elijan has access to a lawyer of his choice. When interviewed by Amnesty International she said: “I wrote public letters, sent emails to the Chinese embassy [and] called multiple times. My sister in Turkey has been protesting [for] over a month in front of the Chinese embassy, [but] we haven’t received any feedback.”