Thailand deports Uyghur detainees to China regardless of warnings from U.S. and rights teams

BANGKOK — Thailand deported 40 Uyghur asylum seekers to China on Thursday, activists and Thai officers mentioned, regardless of warnings from rights advocates and U.S. officers that they may face torture and imprisonment in the event that they had been returned.

The Uyghurs, who had been detained for greater than a decade, had been a part of a bunch of greater than 300 individuals who had been arrested in 2014 after fleeing China to hunt safety in Thailand.

The Chinese language authorities denies accusations that it has dedicated large-scale abuses towards Uyghurs, a largely Muslim ethnic group who dwell primarily within the western Chinese language area of Xinjiang.

The Thai nationwide police chief, Kitrat Phanphet, instructed reporters that 40 individuals had been deported and that officers in China “confirmed the sincerity and the intention to maintain this group of Chinese language Uyghurs.”

China’s Ministry of Public Safety mentioned 40 Chinese language nationals who had entered Thailand illegally had been deported, with out saying whether or not they had been Uyghurs.

The deportation was carried out in accordance with the legal guidelines of each China and Thailand, the Chinese language authorities mentioned, including that the authorized rights of the people concerned had been absolutely protected.

Rights teams and Thai lawmakers condemned the transfer by the Thai authorities, which had mentioned earlier that it had no plans to deport the Uyghurs.

“What’s the Thai authorities doing?” Thai opposition lawmaker Kannavee Suebsang mentioned in a publish on X. “We now have violated their human rights greater than sufficient. There should be a greater decision,” he added.

Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, mentioned the deportation by Thailand “constitutes a blatant violation of Thailand’s obligations underneath home and worldwide legal guidelines.”

“The lads now face a excessive threat of torture, enforced disappearance, and long-term imprisonment in China,” she mentioned in an announcement.

Responding to feedback from rights teams, Lin Jian, a International Ministry spokesperson, mentioned China “is a rule-of-law nation with complete authorized frameworks and mechanisms for shielding human rights.”

“All ethnic teams in China, together with the Uyghur individuals in Xinjiang, take pleasure in full financial, social, cultural and civil rights,” Lin mentioned at an everyday briefing in Beijing.

“China firmly opposes interference in its inside affairs underneath the pretext of human rights and rejects utilizing the Xinjiang challenge to intrude with regular regulation enforcement cooperation between nations,” he added.

Images printed in Thai media and brought early Thursday confirmed vehicles with black tape masking their home windows leaving an immigration middle within the nation’s capital, Bangkok, the place 48 Uyghurs had been detained.

An unscheduled China Southern Airways flight left the Don Mueang airport in Bangkok at 4:48 a.m. native time (4:48 p.m. Wednesday ET) and landed six hours later within the metropolis of Kashgar in Xinjiang, in response to information from the tracker Flightradar24.

Chatting with reporters earlier within the day earlier than the deportation was reported by Chinese language state media, Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra didn’t affirm whether or not anybody had been deported.

“This kind of challenge, for any nation, one has to comply with the regulation, worldwide course of and human rights,” she instructed lawmakers, in response to Reuters.

Thailand was beforehand criticized in 2015 when it deported greater than 100 different members of the unique Uyghur group to China. A lot of the remainder of the group was despatched to Turkey, whereas 53 remained in Thailand.

5 of these 53 have since died, together with two youngsters, in response to United Nations human rights specialists. They are saying virtually half of the remaining 48 Uyghurs had been affected by critical well being circumstances, together with diabetes, kidney dysfunction, and coronary heart and lung circumstances.

The standing of the eight Uyghur detainees who don’t seem to have been deported to China on Thursday was not instantly clear.

Rights activists have criticized the Uyghurs’ circumstances in Thai detention, saying they had been denied entry to relations, attorneys and worldwide organizations. In a letter to the Thai authorities final yr, U.N. specialists mentioned its therapy of the Uyghur detainees could possibly be a violation of worldwide regulation.

Amid considerations that their deportation to China was imminent, the U.N. had urged Thailand to not repatriate the Uyghur detainees, saying final month that they had been “at actual threat of torture or different merciless, inhuman or degrading therapy or punishment if they’re returned.”

Rights teams say Uyghurs in China face discrimination and the suppression of their cultural identification. The U.S. and different Western governments have mentioned that Beijing’s insurance policies on Uyghurs, together with the compelled detention of presumably 1,000,000 or extra individuals, quantity to genocide.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a longtime critic of China’s human rights document, mentioned throughout his affirmation listening to final month that he would foyer Bangkok to not deport the Uyghur detainees, citing the robust U.S. relationship with Thailand.

Members of the Senate International Relations Committee mentioned Monday that the USA had “put sensible choices on the desk” geared toward defending the Uyghur detainees’ human rights.

“We urge Thai leaders to have interaction with the USA on these proposals, slightly than take this ill-advised step,” they mentioned in an announcement.

Nat Sumon reported from Bangkok, and Jennifer Jett reported from Hong Kong.