Uyghur rights groups are urgently calling on Thailand not to deport 48 asylum seekers from China’s Xinjiang region, amid unconfirmed reports that the Thai authorities were preparing to return the group to China today – or may already have done so.
In a statement yesterday, the Campaign for Uyghurs (CFU) cited “credible sources” to the effect that the group of asylum seekers, who have been detained in Thailand’s Immigration Detention Center (IDC) for more than a decade, “are scheduled to be forcibly returned to a regime committing genocide on February 27, 2025.”
“CFU urges the Thai government to halt any deportation plans and facilitate their safe resettlement,” it added. “We call on the international community to take urgent actions to save these Uyghur men, offer viable resettlement pathways, and hold China accountable for its transnational repression, and ongoing Uyghur genocide.”
The CFU statement was echoed on by Justice For All’s Save Uyghur Campaign, the Campaign for Uyghur Human Rights, and the U.S. Congress’ House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, all of which highlighted the abuses that the group of Uyghurs would likely face if returned to China.
“These individuals face a credible risk of imprisonment, torture, or death upon return to a regime that has systematically persecuted Uyghurs through mass internment, forced labor, and other grave abuses,” Reps. John Moolenaar (R-MI) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), the chairman and ranking member of the House Select Committee on the CCP, said in a joint statement. They urged the Thai government to “immediately halt these deportations and to allow the Uyghurs to resettle in nations where they will be free from persecution.”
Despite repeated denials from the Thai government that it was planning to deport the Uyghurs, the Thai media outlet Prachatai reported that two trucks with blacked out windows left the IDC facility in Bangkok’s Suan Phlu neighborhood in the early hours of this morning, followed by an escort and ambulance. It said that it was unclear who, if anyone, was in the trucks, but that the highway was closed to traffic by police, who also ordered reporters not to take photographs.
Romadon Panjor, an parliamentarian for the opposition People’s Party, who was outside the center at the time, called on Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and Defense Minister Phumtham Wechayachai to clarify the government’s intention toward the Uyghurs.
The 48 Uyghurs are part of more than 300 who were detained in 2014 by Thai authorities close to the Malaysian border, after fleeing oppression in China’s Xinjiang region. In July 2015, Thailand sent 173 of the group, mostly women and children, to Turkey; the following week, it deported another 109 detainees to China against their will, prompting a storm of outrage from foreign governments and human rights groups. This left 53 Uyghurs stuck in Thai immigration detention, awaiting their applications for political asylum. Since then, five have died in detention, including two children.
Of the 48 who remain, 43 are currently interned at the IDC in Bangkok, while another five are in Thai prisons serving sentences related to an escape attempt in 2020.
For years, refugee rights groups have expressed concerns about the cramped and insanitary conditions in the IDC facility, which have reportedly led to considerable health problems among the detainees. But concerns about the group’s deportation arose last month, when the Associated Press reported that on January 8, “the Uyghur detainees were asked to sign voluntary deportation papers by Thai immigration officials.” This prompted the 43 Uyghur men in immigration detention to write a letter that made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation.
Since then, in the face of expressions of concern from U.N. experts, human rights groups, and Western governments, various organs of the Thai government have denied that they are planning to deport the Uyghur detainees. On February 14, a Thai court began a hearing on a petition from lawyers for the 43 Uyghurs currently imprisoned at the IDC, seeking their release. The court said last week that it the petition had merit, and ordered to commissioner of the Immigration Bureau to appear in court on March 27.
Speaking to the press in Bangkok this morning, Prime Minister Paetongtarn said that she had “not been made aware” of the deportation of Uyghurs, and said that any country needed “adhere to laws and human rights” on such questions.
If it is confirmed that the Thai authorities are planning to (or have already) deported the 43 Uyghurs, it can expect to weather considerable criticism from foreign governments, including its treaty ally, the United States. During his Senate confirmation hearings last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio promised that he would lobby Thailand against the deportations, which would be “one more opportunity for us to remind the world” about China’s horrific treatment of the Uyghurs.
It was notable that he framed the issue in terms of attacking China rather than in terms of human or refugee rights. How the Trump administration’s tough talk on China squares with its transactional “America First” mindset and apparent indifference for human rights norms remains to be seen, in this case as in many others.