Thailand on Thursday deported 40 Uyghur detainees who had been in the country for nearly 11 years, after receiving assurances from China that they would be looked after, Defence Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said.
They were sent back in accordance with international standards, said Mr Phumtham, providing the first official confirmation from the government after a day of intense speculation.
The move has touched off a storm of criticism from human rights activists.
The Thai government “has finally done the unthinkable”, said Phil Robertson, the Bangkok-based director of Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates.
He said Thailand should resign its seat on the UN Human Rights Council “to show responsibility for its outrageous and unacceptable action”.
The UN High Commmissioner for Refugees said it “deeply regrets” the deportations.
“This is a clear violation of the principle of non-refoulement and the Royal Thai Government’s obligations under international law,” Ruvendrini Menikdiwela, the agency’s assistant high commissioner for protection, said in a statement.
Human Rights Watch criticised Thai authorities for having deported the men despite making public assurances earlier that they would not do so.
“Thailand’s transfer of Uyghur detainees to China constitutes a blatant violation of Thailand’s obligations under domestic and international laws,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director of Human Rights Watch. “The men now face a high risk of torture, enforced disappearance, and long-term imprisonment in China.”
The drama began with a mysterious early-morning motorcade and a subsequent flight that was reported to have landed in China.
Fair Party MP Kannavee Suebsaeng posted photos of detention vans, their windows covered, leaving the immigration detention centre in Soi Suan Phlu in Bangkok around 2am.
The vans entered the expressway, accompanied by a police escort that prevented people from following or tracking their destination.
At Don Mueang Airport, China Southern Airlines flight CZ5245 from Kashgar in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China landed late Wednesday night. At 4.48am Thursday the same plane, now flight CZ5246, took off with its destination marked as “unspecified” on Flightradar24. It was shown to have landed at Kashgar six hours later.
In China, the official Xinhua news agency said on Thursday afternoon that 40 Chinese citizens who had entered Thailand illegally after being “bewitched by criminal organisations” and were stranded in the Southeast Asian country had been repatriated.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, asked about the reported repatriation, said “certain political forces” had been “spreading lies” concerning Xinjiang in order to disrupt order.
“The repatriations … were a concrete measure of cooperation between (China and Thailand) in combating cross-border crimes,” Lin Jian said.
At parliament, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said she had not looked into the details of the matter, adding that any country dealing with such an issue had to base its action on laws, international procedures and human rights.
Ms Paetongtarn spent five days on an official visit to China earlier this month. It is not known if the Uyghur issue came up in any talks between Thai and Chinese officials. (Story continues below)
The Chinese Embassy in Thailand released images which it said showed Uyghur men being reunited with their families on their arrival in Xinjiang on Thursday.
‘National security’
National police chief Kittharath Punpetch initially declined to discuss the reports, citing national security. He later confirmed that the 40 Uyghurs had been repatriated, along with eight Chinese people wanted for various offences.
He said the Chinese government had requested the repatriation of the Uyghurs, promising that their relatives in Xinjiang would pick them up and they would have safe places to live.
He said the transport of the Uyghurs in police vehicles with blacked-out windows and logos was in line with accepted security and human rights practices.
“The repatriation of illegal migrants is normal under the immigration law. This applies to Uyghur people like people of other nationalities. Should we extend their detention for another 10, 11, 12 or 13 years? They are human and they should have the right to return home,” he said.
The Chinese embassy in Bangkok said the “illegal Chinese migrants” had been detained in Thailand for over 10 years because of complicated international factors and they would now resume their normal life.
Sending the Uyghurs back would have severe consequences for Thailand, warned People’s Party MP Rangsiman Rome, chairman of the House committee on national security, border affairs, national strategy and reform.
“I think it will have a significant impact and be a major issue, not just for Thailand, because it affects international trust, especially Thailand’s role in human rights,” he wrote on X.
He also noted that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had previously expressed concern about the Uyghurs, and their deportation could seriously strain the US-Thailand relationship.
International law prohibits returning people to countries where they may face torture, enforced disappearance or persecution.
Rights groups accuse Beijing of widespread abuses of Uyghurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority that numbers around 10 million in the western region of Xinjiang. Beijing denies any abuses. (Story continues below)
The immigration detention centre in Soi Suan Phlu in Bangkok has been home to Uyghur detainees for nearly 11 years.
Fleeing repression
Reports emerged in January that the Uyghur men believed the Thai government was preparing to deport them to China.
A decade ago, Thailand became part of a popular route for Uyghurs fleeing intensifying repression in China and seeking to reach Turkey, which has historically supported Uyghur asylum seekers. Most of the group detained in Bangkok were part of a larger group of around 350 who were arrested by immigration authorities near the border with Malaysia in March 2014.
In July 2015, around 170 women and children from the group were released to Turkey. About a week later, 109 — mostly men — were deported to China. Their whereabouts now are unknown. The rest were kept in immigration detention in Thailand. At least a dozen have escaped, and five have died in detention, including two children.
Five of the asylum seekers are serving prison sentences related to a 2020 escape attempt, while the remaining 43 are being held without charge in the Suan Phlu detention centre, amid sweltering, foul-smelling, cramped conditions. They are barred from communicating with their families, lawyers, or even other detainees.
Under Thai law, the Uyghurs’ detention is categorised as a national security matter. This places them under the purview of the National Security Council (NSC), rather than immigration authorities. It also bars them from accessing the country’s National Screening Mechanism, designed to allow refugees to live in the country and access public services.
Immigration police have said they have been trying to take care of the detainees as best as they could.
Pol Gen Kittharath last month defended the treatment of the Uyghurs, saying that if their treatment was poor, claims would have surfaced in media reports long ago.
Thailand must face global condemnation for its decision, said Rushan Abbas, executive director of the Campaign for Uyghurs.
“These deportations expose the ugly reality that, for many governments, human lives are negotiable and are traded away for political or economic interests,” she said.
