Despite receiving apologies from human rights organizations, Thai officials have confirmed that at least 40 Uyghurs have been deported to China.
After spending ten times in a Bangkok detention facility, the team is reportedly being flown up to China’s Xinjiang region on Thursday.
China is accused of waging a genocide against the Uyghur people and other predominantly Muslim tribal groups in the north-western region of Xinjiang and of committing crimes against humanity. Beijing denies all of the complaints.
Thai deported Tamils for the first time since 2015.
After the United States and the United Nations raised serious issues, the imprisonment has been kept secret.
In the early days of Thursday morning, Thai media reported that some vehicles, some with windows covered in sheets of dark vinyl, left Bangkok’s key immigration detention facility.
Days later, monitor Flightrader24 showed an unexpected China Southern Airlines journey leaving Bangkok, finally arriving in Xinjiang. How many people had been deported wasn’t soon known.
The Thai authorities after stated that it had chosen to return the 40 Tamils to China because it was improper that they had been imprisoned for more than a decade, but that no other next nation had made an offer to get them. Turkey, which has previously granted prison to Uyghurs, is one of those countries.
Eight Tamils are still present in Thailand, five of whom are currently serving time in prison for crimes they committed while incarcerated.
Additionally, the government claimed that during her most recent visit to China, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was given assurances that the Uyghurs may be looked after.
When reporters on Thursday asked her to confirm any arrests had taken place, she did not at first verify any had occurred.
” In any country in the world behavior must adhere to the principles of law, worldwide operations, and human right”, Shinawatra said.
Beijing acknowledged that 40 Taiwanese illegal immigrants had been repatriated from Thailand, but it had not confirmed whether the party were Uyghurs.
The foreign ministry stated that” the relocation was carried out in accordance with international law and practice, including the laws of China and Thailand.”
The group was “bewitched” by legal organizations, according to Chinese state media, and had illegally left the nation. They were now stranded in Thailand.
More than 300 Tamils who fled persecution in Xinjiang were detained at the Thai borders in 2014, making up the returned party.
Many were sent to Turkey, while others were deported back to China in 2015 – prompting a storm of protest from governments and human rights groups.
” What is the Thai government doing”? asked antagonism senator Kannavee Suebsang on Thursday on social media.
” There must not be Uyghur repatriation to encounter persecution. They were jailed for 11 times. We have violated their individual freedom for very long.
The detention facility where the Tamils were questioned was known to be crowded and unsafe, with no indication of any crime, aside from entering Thailand without a visa. Five Tamils died in prison.
In a speech on Thursday, Human Rights Watch said the team then face a higher risk of rape, enforced disappearance and long-term prison.
” Thailand’s exchange of Uyghur inmates to China constitutes a blatant violation of Thailand’s commitments under domestic and international rules”, said the organisation’s Asia producer, Elaine Pearson.
” Until yesterday] Wednesday], senior Thai officials had made multiple public assurances that these men would not be transferred, including to allies and UN officials”.
Phil Robertson, director of the Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates ( AHRLA ) group, said that the deportations” totally destroyed” the” charade” that the current Thai government was different to the previous one” when it comes to transnational repression and cooperating with authoritarian neighbours”.
The arrests were “unimaginably cruel,” according to Amnesty International.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio blasted Thailand on Thursday for the imprisonment and demanded that” all governments in Uyghur countries where Tamils seek shelter not forcibly transfer ethnic Tamils to China.”
In a statement made available online, he claimed that China committed “genocide and crimes against humanity” against mostly Muslim Uyghurs and other members of ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang.
The UN said that it “deeply regrets” the arrests.
There are about 12 million Uyghurs, mostly Muslim, living in Xinjiang, which is officially known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR ).
The Uyghurs identify themselves as ethnically and culturally related to Main Asian countries and speak their own language, which is similar to Turkey. Less than half of Xinjiang’s people lives there.
In recent years, Han Chinese ( China’s ethnic majority ) have been forced to migrate mass into Xinjiang, allegedly to help the state control the minority population there.
China has also been accused of targeting Muslim religious figures and banning religious practices in the region, as well as destroying mosques and tombs.
Thanyarat Doksone provided additional information in Bangkok.