Bangkok – Thailand expelled at least 40 Uighurs in China on Thursday, ignoring calls from the United States, the United Nations and rights for the rights of rights not to return men, who have been detained in Thailand for more than a decade, due to the risk of torture.
The deportation was enveloped in secrets and Thai officials refused to comment.
The CCTV of the state of China confirmed it a few hours later.
“Today, 40 Chinese illegal immigrants have been repatriated from Thailand. The repatriation was carried out in accordance with the laws of China and Thailand, international law and international practice, “reported CCTV.
He did not identify those expelled as Uyghurs and it was not clear why the diffuser reported that 40 people had been expelled when Thailand has 48 Uighurs, most of them in a Bangkok immigration center.
The Chinese Public Security Ministry has not given a number for how many people had been returned.
“The Chinese citizens repatriated this time have been deceived by criminal organizations and illegally leave the country and then blocked in Thailand,” said the ministry, adding that their legal rights were “entirely protected”.
Earlier, human rights activists and Thai media reported that several trucks, some with windows blocked with black plastic leaves, left the main immigration detention center in Bangkok after 2 am and went north to Don Mueang airport in the city.
A raised highway from the airport was blocked in other traffic as the trucks passed, said a human rights activist.
The media then quoted a flight tracking application as showing an chartered flight from China Southern Airlines which left Don Mueang at 4:48 am, the application did not give the destination of the flight, but she later showed that she had landed in the Xinjiang region.
“I think they left,” said Chalida Tajaroensuk, director of People’s Empowerment Foundation, who had helped Uïghours, at Radio Free Asia.
The men of the most of the Muslim minority of the Uighur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang in China have been held at the Immigration Center in Thailand since 2014, after trying to escape the persecution of Beijing through Thailand.
A rights to defend the rights said in early January that the reports of the detained men said that Thai authorities were preparing to expel them, but Thailand rejected the concerns and said it was not planned to send them to China.
A spokesperson for the US State Department said on Wednesday that the United States was deeply concerned about the reports that the 48 were about to be expelled and that he called on Thailand to respect the principle of non-renfoument-or not to expel people to places where they risk torture and other abuses-and to comply with international obligations.
The opposition legislator, Kannavee Suebsang, said that the government had questions to answer.
“What is the Thai government doing?” The Prime Minister must respond to the population urgently, “said Kannavee in an article on Facebook after the rights activists reported that the trucks left the Bangkok detention center.
“There should be no Uighur expulsion to deal with persecution. They were imprisoned for 11 years. We have violated their human rights for too long. There must be a better way out.
Government spokesman Jirayu Huangsap said the police had not informed the government of any expulsion.
“I don’t know about it and I can’t confirm it,” Jirayu told Benarnews. “Thai royal police will have to present themselves to the government. So far, there has been no report, so I don’t know if it’s true or false. »»
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was also kept when the Parliament was asked to confirm the repatriation.
“I have not yet talked about this in detail,” she said, adding: “The actions of all countries must comply with the rule of law, international protocol and human rights.”
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‘No answers’
Human Rights Watch said the situation was “very worrying”.
“It has been 48 hours since we were able to contact the Uighurs in detention,” said Sunai Phasuk, principal researcher in Thailand at Human Rights Watch.
“There are no answers from the Office of Immigration to the Government. The silence of operational level officers to the Prime Minister is unusually surprising. »»
A Thai court has envisaged a petition deposited by a Thai lawyer so that men are released. He said that last week, she saw merit in the petition and had asked the authorities more information and planned for the next hearing for March 27.
“Thailand has laws preventing people from being returned to face a danger,” said Sunai, referring to a 2022 law on the prevention of torture which contained a provision on non-refonte
“If they really refer Uighurs to China, it means that the government rates not only international law but also its own national laws,” he said.
The 48 were part of a cohort of more than 350 Uighur men, women and children, who left China in the hope of finding a resettlement abroad and were arrested in Thailand.
The Uighours of the vast region of Xinjiang in China have been subject to generalized human rights violations, including detention in massive concentration camps. Beijing denies it.
Turkey accepted 172 while Thailand returned 109 of them to China in 2015, triggering a storm of international criticisms for the decision.
Thailand had destroyed in recent weeks the rights for the rights of rights that the Uyghuzs held would also be expelled. United Nations Experts On January 21, the kingdom exhorted not to repatriate them by saying that they would probably face torture in China.
Published by Tajun Kang and Mike Firn.
Nontarat Phaicharoen and Jon Preechawong in Bangkok contributed to this report.
Benarnews is an information service affiliated with the FRG.