Bangkok – Four ethnic Uighurs held in a Thai prison cried when they learned that 40 of their friends had been deportee In China, after being detained for more than a decade in a locking of Thai immigration, said a friend of men on Friday after visiting them.
Thailand expelled the 40 Uighurs in China on Thursday, ignoring the warnings of the United States, the United Nations and human rights groups that they risked torture when they were returned to the northeast region of Xinjiang, which they fled more than 10 years ago.
“When they learned that their 40 friends had been sent to China, they had a broken heart,” a 37 -year -old friend told Radio Free Asia.
“They cried, something they had never done before, because they are so worried about their friends,” she said.
There are five Uighurs in Klong Prem prison in Bangkok where they were sent after trying to escape. Marzeryya said she had met four of them on Friday.
It was not clear why the five had not also been returned to China on Thursday.
Thailand defended its expulsion from the 40, saying that it had received an “official request” from China and returned them after the “highest level” insurance of the Chinese government on their security.
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, in his first public commentary on deportations that threaten to Create a rift With the former ally the United States, rejected any suggestion that Thailand had returned men in exchange for a commercial reward from China, adding that they had volunteered to go.
“These are people, no goods. People are not goods. We have certainly not exchanged them, “she told journalists.
“I confirm that they returned voluntarily. Otherwise, it would have been dragged. There was no drag, they approached normally, “she said, referring to their transfer from the main immigration detention center in Bangkok to a return flight to China.
Most Muslim Uighurs in the vast Xinjiang region in China have been subjected to generalized human rights violations, including detention in massive concentration camps.
China denies that but United Nations Experts said Oighours on January 21 in Thailand will probably be faced with torture if they were forced to return to China and urged Thailand not to expel them.
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Truck at night at the airport
The 40 were taken in the middle of the night in trucks with windows blocked with black plastic sheets, escorted by police cars and under a media failure, at Don Mueang airport in Bangkok for the return flight.
Marzeryya rejected the suggestion that they had returned voluntarily.
“Why would they like to return to China when they fled from there because they had no freedom and could not practice their religion?” This is why they would never want to go back, ”she said.
Marzeryya said none of the five in prison wanted to go to China.
“They don’t want to come back. They begged us to pray so that they were moved to a third country, “she said.
Chalida Tajaroensuk, director of the population of the Foundation upheaval, also visited four of the Uighurs imprisoned on Friday.
“They confirmed that they did not want to go to China, they want to go to a third country,” Chalida told Benarnews.
“They said they had already escaped from China, so why would they want to go back?” This contradicts what the Thai government has said. »»
Three other ouhhnic ouhnics are still detained at the Bangkok immigration detention center. They have Kyrgyzstan passports and were therefore not sent to China, said Chalida.
The 48 Uighrs were part of a cohort of more than 350 Uighur men, women and children, who left China in the hope of finding resettlement abroad and was arrested and detained in Thailand in 2014.
Turkey accepted 172 of them while Thailand returned 109 of them to China in 2015, triggering a storm of international criticism. Several of them have died of illness over the years.
Edited by RFA staff.
Pimuk Rakkanam and Jon Preechawong in Bangkok contributed to this report.
Benarnews is an online information service affiliated with the RFA.