Bangkok – Three Uighur men with Kyrgyz passports who wooled in Thai detention for more than a decade were resettled in Canada earlier this month, a plea group said on Monday, avoiding the fate of dozens of Uyghurs expelled from Thailand in China.
Men were part of more than 300 Uighurs who fled China in 2014, where ethnic minority is faced with sustained persecution, to be apprehended by the authorities in Thailand, triggering a prolonged rope on their fate.
No more than February, Thailand expelled 40 Uighur men in China, triggering an international condemnation.
“The trio that held Kyrgyzstani passports went to Canada after Thai New Year,” said Chalida Tajaroensuk, director of the popular empowerment population at Radio Free Asia.
“Unlike others, they were allowed to meet UNHCR officials and to receive refugee status, they were finally released,” said Chalida, referring to the United Nations Refugee Agency.
The Foundation pleaded for Uighur prisoners since their arrests in 2014.
Uingours are a Turkish Muslim minority in the northwest region of China known as Xinjiang in Chinese. The Uighurs refer to their region like Eastern Turkestan – a name that reflects the linguistic and cultural roots shared with other peoples of Central Asia along the historic silk road, including kazakhs, kirghizes and uzbeks.
According to foreign governments, Xinjiang Uighurs have been subject to generalized human rights violations, including detention in massive concentration camps. Beijing described camps as vocational training centers and has denied any abuse.
Thailand has close links with China, the dominant economic actor of the region. China is among the main business partners and foreign investors in Thailand and its main source of foreign tourists.
In 2015, Thailand enabled around 170 Uighis to be resettled in Turkey, but also expelled 109 Uighurs in China, which sparked a deadly reprisal bomb in Bangkok in August of the same year.
The Canada Embassy in Bangkok did not answer RFA questions about the resettlement of the three men.
A spokesperson for the Thai government said that he had no knowledge of the arrangement.
The Post Bangkok The newspapers, citing named diplomatic and Thai government sources, said that men were not expelled to China because they had Kyrgyzist passports.
Chalida said five other Uighur men are serving prison terms for a jailbreak and could be released in a year or two.
The Thai government previously declared that it would expel the five Uyghurs detained in Klong Prem prison in China once they have finished their sorrows.
“I am still concerned about the other five Uighurs who are serving prison sentences in Klong Prem prison. They could be released next year or a year later, but are subject to deportation to China,” said Chalida.
“If countries show a clear intention to receive them, the Thai authorities can consider it.”
Chalida also said that two alleged perpetrators of the bombing of August 2015, who are in a military prison – Adem Karadag and Yusufu Meiraili – will have another hearing on May 15.
Among the original detained group, three died during their imprisonment in Thailand.
Published by Stephen Wright and Mike Firn.