Laura Bicker and Kathryn Armstrong
Beijing and London
EPA
The Thai authorities had already denied that they were going to send the Uighurs to China
At least 40 Uighurs have been expelled in China, the Thai authorities confirmed, despite warnings of rights for the rights they are faced with possible torture and even death.
On Thursday, the group was reportedly brought back to the Chinese Xinjiang region, after being detained for 10 years in a Bangkok detention center.
China has been accused of having committed crimes against humanity and perhaps a genocide against the Uighur population and other mainly Muslim ethnic groups in the northwest region of Xinjiang. Beijing denies all allegations.
This is the first time that Thailand has expelled Uighurs since 2015.
The expulsion was wrapped in secret after serious concerns were raised by the United States and the United Nations.
The Thai media reported that several trucks, some with windows blocked with black plastic sheets, left the main Bangkok immigration detention center in the early hours of Thursday morning.
A few hours later, Tracker Flightrader24 showed a flight from China Southern Airlines unforeseen, leaving Bangkok, finally arriving in Xinjiang. It was not immediately clear how many people had been expelled.
The Thai Defense Minister told the news agency in Reuters that Beijing had given insurance that the deportees would be taken care of.
Beijing said 40 Chinese illegal immigrants had been repatriated from Thailand, but refused to confirm that the group was Oights.
“Repatriation has been carried out in accordance with the laws of China and Thailand, international law and international practice,” said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Chinese state media said the group had been “released” by criminal organizations and was blocked in Thailand after leaving the country illegally.
Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has initially confirmed any expulsion when asked by the journalists.
“In all countries of the world, actions must adhere to the principles of law, international processes and human rights,” she said.
It is believed that the group is the last of more than 300 Uighurs who were detained on the Thai border in 2014 after fled the repression in the Xinjiang.
Many have been sent to Turkey, which generally offers Uighur asylum, while others were expelled in China in 2015, which caused a storm of protest of governments and human rights groups.
“What is the Thai government doing?” The Kannavee Suebsang opposition legislator on social media on Thursday.
“There should be no Uighur expulsion to face the persecution. They were imprisoned for 11 years. We have raped their human rights for too long.”
The detention center where Uighurs – which had been charged without crime, apart from entering Thailand without visa – were kept to be unsanitary and overcrowded. Five Uighurs died in detention.
In a statement on Thursday, Human Rights Watch said that the group is now risking a high risk of torture, forced disappearance and long -term imprisonment.
“The transfer of Thailand of Uighur prisoners to China is a blatant violation of the obligations of Thailand under national and international laws,” said the director of the organization in Asia, Elaine Pearson.
“Until yesterday (Wednesday), senior Thai officials had made multiple assurances the public that these men would not be transferred, including the allies and officials of the UN.”
Phil Robertson, director of the Asia Asia Human Rights and Labor Advocates group (AHRLA), said that deportations “had completely destroyed” the “masquerade” according to which the current Thai government was different from the previous one “with regard to transnational repression and cooperation with authoritarian neighbors”.
Amnesty International described deportations as “unimaginably cruel”.
On Wednesday, bipartite members of the American China China Committee published a statement warning that deportations “would constitute a clear violation of international human rights standards to which the Kingdom of Thailand is obliged under international law”.
The UN said that it “deeply regrets” the deportations.
There are about 12 million UGHurs, mainly Muslim, living in Xinjiang, which is officially known as the Uighur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang (Xuar).
The Uighurs speak their own language, which is similar to the Turk, and considers itself culturally and ethnically close to the nations of Central Asia. They represent less than half of the Xinjiang population.
The last decades have experienced a massive migration of the Chinese Han (the ethnic majority of China) in the Xinjiang, which would have been orchestrated by the State to dilute the minority population there.
China has also been accused of targeting Muslim religious personalities and of prohibiting religious practices in the region, as well as destroying mosques and tombs.
With additional Thanyyarat Doksone reports in Bangkok
