By AP and published by Yahoo!News
Taipei, Taiwan – A group of at least 40 Uyghur men detained in Thailand for more than a decade have been deported to China, Thai and Chinese officials said on Thursday (Feb. 27). The men made a public appeal last month to halt the deportation, saying they faced imprisonment and possible death in China.
Thai lawmakers and international officials had urged the Thai government not to deport them, warning it would amount to a serious rights abuse.
The deportation were “a clear violation of international human rights laws and standards,” according to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.
“It is deeply regrettable that they have been forcibly returned,” Türk said on Thursday. “It is now important for the Chinese authorities to disclose their whereabouts, and to ensure that they are treated in accordance with international human rights standards.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned “in the strongest possible terms Thailand’s forced return of at least 40 Uyghurs to China, where they lack due process rights and where Uyghurs have faced persecution, forced labour, and torture.”
Rubio at his Senate confirmation hearing in January had pledged to press Thailand — “a very strong US partner, a strong historical ally” — not to deport the Uyghurs.
In a statement posted on Thursday on his agency’s website, he said the action risks violating international human rights agreements and “runs counter to the Thai people’s longstanding tradition of protection for the most vulnerable and is inconsistent with Thailand’s commitment to protect human rights.”
Thai police and security officials led by Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said at a news conference in Bangkok that China had given assurances that the men wouldn’t face penalties or be harmed.
They said that all of them voluntarily returned after being shown a translation of a written Chinese agreement requesting their repatriation and declaring they would be allowed to live normally.
Tight security
Thai lawmakers, activists and lawyers had raised the alarm on Wednesday that the men were about to be deported, and after midnight. trucks with black sheets covering their windows left Bangkok’s Immigration Detention Centre, where they had been held, amid visibly tighter security on the street outside, including briefly detaining an Associated Press journalist and searching his belongings.
It appeared that the truck drove them to Bangkok’s Don Mueang airport, where a China Southern Airlines plane was waiting and then flew to the heartland of China’s Uyghur population in northwestern Xinjiang province.
In a statement on Facebook, the Chinese Embassy acknowledged on Thursday that 40 Chinese nationals who it said entered Thailand illegally were deported to Xinjiang by a chartered flight.
It said the men had been detained in Thailand for more than 10 years because of “complicated international factors.”
Thai authorities release images
A video shown by Thai officials at a news conference on Thursday night showed what were said to be some of the men exiting the aircraft, with one awkwardly embraced by an unsmiling woman, while at least a half-dozen photographers and cameramen hovered next to them.
Photos were also released of some eating a meal and undergoing health checks as unidentified officials stood by them. No photos were publicly available of the group’s departure from Thailand.
A total of 43 Uyghur men had been held at the Bangkok detention centre. Five others stayed behind because they were serving prison sentences for an earlier escape attempt.
It’s unclear why China had only confirmed the deportation of 40.
Harsh conditions in detention
The Uyghurs are a Turkic, majority Muslim ethnicity native to Xinjiang. After decades of conflict with Beijing over discrimination and suppression of their cultural identity, the Chinese government launched a brutal crackdown on the Uyghurs that some Western governments deem a genocide. Hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs, possibly a million or more, were swept into camps and prisons, with former detainees reporting abuse, disease, and in some cases, death.
More than 300 Uyghurs fleeing China were detained in 2014 by Thai authorities. In 2015, Thailand deported 109 detainees to China against their will, prompting an international outcry. Another group of 173 Uyghurs, mostly women and children, were sent to Turkey, leaving 53 Uyghurs stuck in Thai immigration detention and seeking asylum. Since then, five have died in detention, including two children.
Advocates and relatives say the 48 remaining Uyghurs were subject to harsh conditions in Thai detention and were forbidden contact with relatives, lawyers and international organizations.
The Thai government’s treatment of the detainees may have constituted a violation of international law, according to a 2024 letter sent to the Thai government by UN human rights experts.
Secret deportation plans
For more than a decade, the Uyghur detainees have presented a diplomatic dilemma for Thailand, which is caught between China, its largest trading partner, and the US, its traditional military ally.
Beijing claims the Uyghurs are terrorists, but hasn’t presented evidence of that in the cases of those just repatriated. Uyghur activists and Western officials say the men are innocent and would face persecution, imprisonment and possible death in China.
Facing potential backlash from all sides, Thailand had detained them indefinitely.
Discussions to deport them restarted after Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra took office last year. Her father, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, maintains close links to top Chinese officials.
In December, shortly after Paetongtarn met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, Thai officials began secretly discussing plans to deport the Uyghurs, according to four people familiar with the matter. The people declined to be named for fear of retaliation to themselves or their contacts.
After the AP reported in January that Thai authorities were discussing deporting the Uyghurs. US and other officials expressed concern, which was repeated this week following reports about their imminent deportation.
CAPTIONS:
Top and Front Page: Trucks leaving an immigration detention centre in Bangkok on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. Photos: Nuttaphol Meksobhon/Prachatai, via Associated Press and published by Yahoo!News
First, second and third insert : The Chinese Embassy in Bangkok released images apparently showing Uyghur men being reunited with their families after being deported from Thailand. Photo: Chinese Embassy Bangkok and published by Naewna newspaper
Last insert: An immigration detention centre is seen in Bangkok on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. Photo: AP/Jerry Harmer and published by Seattle Times
(Huizhong Wu reported from Mae Sot, Thailand. Jintamas Saksornchai in Mae Sot, and Grant Peck and Jerry Harmer in Bangkok, contributed to this report.
Dake Kang and Huizhong Wu, The Associated Press)
Also read: China’s Xi and Paetongtarn vow to crack down on scam networks that plague Southeast Asia
‘Escaping hell’: Myanmar scam centre workers plead to go home
Paetongtarn sole target of censure debate
Anutin joins hands with Israeli ambassador in solving problem at Pai
Ministry eases rules on export of Thai wooden products, but not Siamese Rosewood
Govt urged to step up screening of tourists
