The United Nations led criticism Thursday of Thailand’s government over its deportation to China of 40 Uyghurs held for more than a decade in detention in Bangkok. The deportation came despite warnings that the Uyghurs face persecution and the risk of torture if handed over to Chinese authorities.
U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk has called the deportation “a clear violation of international human rights laws and standards.”
The deportation “violates the principle of non-refoulement for which there is a complete prohibition in cases where there is a real risk of torture, ill-treatment, or other irreparable harm upon their return,” Türk said in a statement.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also strongly condemned the move.
“This act runs counter to the Thai people’s longstanding tradition of protection for the most vulnerable and is inconsistent with Thailand’s commitment to protect human rights. We urge all governments in countries where Uyghurs seek protection not to forcibly return ethnic Uyghurs to China,” Rubio said in a statement.
Campaigners say the fate of the group, which had been held at an immigration detention center in the Thai capital and unable to apply for asylum in Thailand, highlights a failure of Thai authorities to meet their own human rights commitments — as well as the reach of China to get its allies to act on its behalf.
Thailand’s police chief late Thursday confirmed 40 Uyghurs had been sent on a chartered jet to China after images emerged before dawn of several police trucks with blacked-out windows rushing from the detention center to the airport.
“The Chinese government sent a letter to the Thai government stating their intention to look after the safety of this group of Uyghur people,” Police General Kitrat Phanphet told reporters.
“They reiterated that they will sincerely take care of their safety, their accommodation, as well as allow their family members of these Uyghurs to welcome them home,” he said.
Uyghurs in China
Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority from China’s remote western region of Xinjiang, have faced oppression by Beijing that governments, including the United States and U.K., have described as genocide.
Since 2017, China has put more than a million Uyghurs into internment camps, according to Amnesty International. In 2022, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said Beijing’s treatment of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang may constitute “crimes against humanity.”
Uyghurs fleeing China to Thailand have long been a delicate issue for the Southeast Asian kingdom.
Successive governments have faced intense pressure from Beijing to return them. In July 2015 more than 100 detainees were deported to China against their will. A few weeks later, a bomb blast killed 20 people at a downtown shrine in Bangkok — an attack some security experts have linked to Uyghur diaspora groups.
The Thai government has never publicly confirmed that connection.
Until Thursday, 53 remaining Uyghurs were languishing in a legal limbo in detention since that bomb attack, despite pleas for asylum. Five died in that time. It was not immediately clear what has happened to the eight who were not confirmed among the 40 sent to China on Thursday.
The Chinese Embassy in Bangkok said that “40 Chinese nationals” were deported after a decade detained in Thailand “due to complex international considerations.”
“This is a formal measure between China and Thailand in combating smuggling and protecting the rights and interests of Chinese citizens in accordance with the laws of both countries,” it said in a statement, promising to return them “back to their normal lives.”
Criticism at home and abroad
After years of lobbying, Thailand in January joined the U.N. Human Rights Council for a three-year term. The deportation has raised concerns over Thailand’s priorities.
Ruvendrini Menikdiwela, assistant high commissioner for protection at the UNHCR — the UN’s refugee arm — said the deportation of the 40 was a “clear violation of the principle of non-refoulement” and admonished the Thai government for breaching its “obligations under international law.”
While Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra refused to be drawn into the issue, opposition lawmakers led condemnation.
“Today I feel utterly upset and sad,” Kannavee Suebsang, a member of parliament for the Fair Party who was also a field officer with UNHCR, told parliament. “But I will not cry for the Uyghur brothers and sisters. … Instead, I will cry for the inhumane handling of this government for pushing these people back to face calamity.”
Shinawatra traveled to China earlier this month promising tighter cooperation to crack down on cross-border crimes, principally a massive scam crisis.
But concerns have been raised about what other deals may have been struck.
Rangsiman Rome, a prominent opposition lawmaker, said, “Deporting these Uyghurs to China violates the kingdom’s anti-torture law — which is our own domestic law, as well as international law” due to the risks they face in China.
Rights campaigners who have urged Thailand to provide sanctuary to the Uyghurs said Thailand has done the “unthinkable” in sending them back to China, where they can face torture.
“This massive human rights violation blows apart any pretense the Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and her Thai government has made to be a rights-respecting member of the U.N. Human Rights Council,” said Phil Robertson, director of Asia Human Rights and Labor Advocates.
“The Thai government should resign its seat on the Council to show responsibility for its outrageous and unacceptable action,” he said.
