TAIPEI – A group of Uyghur men detained in Thailand for more than a decade have been deported to China, the Chinese embassy in Thailand confirmed Thursday. The men last month made a public appeal to halt the deportation, saying they faced imprisonment and possible death in China.
On Wednesday, Thai lawmakers, activists, and lawyers raised the alarm about the possible deportation of the men. In a statement on Facebook, the Chinese embassy said Thursday that 40 Chinese nationals who entered Thailand illegally were deported to China’s northwestern Xinjiang province by a chartered flight on Thursday. It said the men had been detained in Thailand for more than 10 years due to “complicated international factors.”
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Several Thai lawmakers and international officials had urged the Thai government to halt the deportation, warning it would amount to a serious rights abuse.
“The Uyghurs must not be returned to face persecution. They have been held in detention for 11 years. We have violated their human rights enough. There are better solutions,” Thai lawmaker Kannavee Suebsang wrote in a post on X.
The deportation had been scheduled for early Thursday morning, according to a Thai government official, a foreign official, and three people in touch with Thai authorities. All five people declined to be named to disclose sensitive internal information.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported Thursday that “40 Chinese illegal immigrants” had been repatriated, quoting a police official who said they had been ”deceived by criminal organizations” and stranded in Thailand. Photos of those repatriated by China and shared by the embassy appeared to show people of Uyghur ethnicity.
On Tuesday, an advocate who was in contact with the Uyghurs daily said she lost contact with the men. On Wednesday evening, an AP journalist witnessed heightened security around the detention center where the men were held, with police briefly detaining the journalist and searching his belongings. Trucks with black sheets covering their windows headed for an airport early Thursday, according to staff working for Suebsang and Uyghur activist Polat Sayim.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not confirm details of the deportation.
Potential violation of international law
The Uyghurs are a Turkic, majority Muslim ethnicity native to Xinjiang. After decades of conflict with Beijing over discrimination and suppression of their cultural identity, the Chinese government launched a brutal crackdown on the Uyghurs that some Western governments deem a genocide. Hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs, possibly a million or more, were swept into camps and prisons, with former detainees reporting abuse, disease, and in some cases, death.
More than 300 Uyghurs fleeing China were detained in 2014 by Thai authorities. In 2015, Thailand deported 109 detainees to China against their will, prompting an international outcry. Another group of 173 Uyghurs, mostly women and children, were sent to Turkey, leaving 53 Uyghurs stuck in Thai immigration detention and seeking asylum.
Since then, five have died in detention, including two children. Advocates and relatives say the 48 remaining Uyghurs were subject to harsh conditions in Thai immigration detention and were forbidden contact with relatives, lawyers, and international organizations. The Thai government’s treatment of the detainees may constitute a violation of international law, according to a 2024 letter sent to the Thai government by U.N. human rights experts.
Schoochart Kanpai, an attorney representing the men, said if confirmed, their deportation would be a violation of Thai and international law.
“Any action to deport them without due process would not only violate Thai law but also severely damage Thailand’s international reputation,” Kanpai said.
Secret deportation plans
For over a decade, the Uyghur detainees have presented a diplomatic conundrum for Thailand, which is caught between China, its largest trading partner, and the U.S., its traditional military ally.
Beijing claims the Uyghurs are jihadists, but has not presented evidence of that. Uyghur activists and Western politicians say the men are innocent and have repeatedly expressed alarm over their possible deportation, saying they face persecution, imprisonment, and possible death in China.
Facing potential backlash from all sides, Thailand detained them indefinitely.
Discussions to deport them restarted after Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra took office last year. Her father, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, maintains close links to top Chinese officials.
In December, shortly after Paetongtarn met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, Thai officials began secretly discussing plans to deport the Uyghurs, according to four people familiar with the matter. The people declined to be named for fear of retaliation to themselves or their contacts.
But pressure mounted on the Thai government after AP reported in January that Thai authorities were discussing deporting the Uyghurs. The United Nations special rapporteur on torture and Japanese, American and European officials issued statements expressing concern.
U.S. and other officials expressed concern again this week following reports about the possibility of imminent deportation.
“These men face torture, imprisonment, and even death upon return to China,” U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee members Jim Risch and Jeanne Shaheen said Tuesday. They said the men’s deportation would be “ill-advised” and that the U.S. had proposed practical options to resolve the status of the Uyghurs in Thailand, their statement said.
Rayhan Asat, an attorney who had petitioned the U.N. to block the deportation of the men, said she had notified contacts in the U.S. government on Thursday.
“If the deportation occurs, Thailand will effectively issue death sentences, thereby aiding and abetting the Chinese government in committing atrocities,” Asat said.
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Wu reported from Mae Sot, Thailand. Associated Press journalists Jintamas Saksornchai in Mae Sot, Grant Peck and Jerry Harmer in Bangkok contributed to this report.