His eyes brimming with tears, a Uighur student in Saudi Arabia holds out his Chinese passport—long past its expiry date and condemning him to an uncertain fate as the kingdom grows closer to Beijing.

The Chinese mission in Saudi Arabia stopped renewing passports for the ethnic Muslim minority more than two years ago, in what campaigners call a pressure tactic exercised in many countries to force the Uighur diaspora to return home.

Half a dozen Uighur families in Saudi Arabia who showed AFP their passports—a few already expired and some approaching the date—said they dread going back to China, where over a million Uighurs are believed to be held in internment camps. “Even animals in other countries are allowed to have passports,” said the 30-year-old religious student in the Muslim holy city of Medina, whose passport expired in 2018.

“Either they should renew my passport or let me drop my nationality. They make us feel like worthless humans.”