2023 LANDO Grantee Benjamin Mauk and journalist and researcher Nyrola Elimä’s major investigation was published by The New York Times.
Mauk and Elimä investigated China’s transnational repression of Uyghurs and a little-known human smuggling route through Southeast Asia traveled by thousands of Uyghur asylum seekers. Based on more than 30 interviews with survivors of the route, the story follows one man’s daring escape from indefinite detention in Thailand and brings attention to a group of nearly 50 Uyghurs still trapped in a Guantanamo Bay-like facility, most of whom are not charged with any crime other than entering the country illegally, and who, more than 10 years after their capture, remain in danger of deportation.