Thailand’s government deported 40 Uyghur asylum seekers to China in a secretive overnight operation last week. The group was carried to Bangkok’s Don Mueang airport in trucks with covered windows several hours after midnight on Wednesday, and then shipped to Kashgar in an unscheduled China Southern Airlines flight before 5:00 a.m. on Thursday. The Chinese government then announced that the “illegal immigrants” had been “repatriated.” Thai officials claimed the Chinese government had given assurances that the Uyghurs would not be harmed in China, but human rights organizations fiercely criticized Thailand for failing to comply with international law. Tom Levitt from The Guardian shared the background of one of the deported Ugyhurs, whose family criticized Thailand’s “shameful” actions that may lead to his torture:
Muhammed said she and her then husband, Polat, 39, left Korla, the second-largest city in Xinjiang after she was arrested and forced by police to remove her hijab and Polat was banned from attending prayers at a mosque.
While Muhammed, who was pregnant with their second child, and their son made it to Turkey, Polat was arrested and has been detained in Thailand ever since.
“We just wanted a peaceful life where we could raise our children and not be seen as a criminal,” said Muhammed, who shared one of the final exchanges of messages between her now 10-year-old daughter and Polat. Her daughter has never met her father.
[…] “There is no way Polat or his family still living in China would have wanted him to return there. He just wanted to see his children again,” said Muhammed.
[…] “It’s shameful for Thailand to send these people to China, even though the family and whole world knows it is an unsafe place for Uyghurs,” she said. [Source]
The 40 Uyghurs who were deported were among a larger group of hundreds of Uyghurs detained in Thailand in the early 2010s while attempting to flee persecution in Xinjiang. The Thai government deported 109 of them to China in 2015, but 48 remained in Bangkok. This January, the Thai government attempted to deport them to China but appeared to have paused the operation after the asylum seekers went on a hunger strike and drew widespread international concern.
Regarding the timing of last week’s deportation, Eric Olander argued in Monday’s newsletter of the China-Global South Project that “with Washington consumed by Russia, Ukraine, and the situation in the Mideast, [Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn] Shinawatra might have calculated that this was the perfect moment to get rid of a long-running problem in its relationship with China, with only minimal blowback. And if it helps score some easy points with Beijing — now a more important partner than ever, given mounting concerns about U.S. dependability — then that’s even better.” Shinawatra also pledged to deepen ties with China during a meeting with Xi Jinping in Beijing in early February, and the Thai government has recently increased cooperation with China in its crackdown on scam centers near the Thailand-Myanmar border. Many comments under a Weibo video showing the Uyghurs escorted off the plane in handcuffs upon their arrival in Kashgar falsely suggested that the Uyghurs had participated in the illegal scam-center operations.
Domestic and global criticism of Thailand was swift. Al Jazeera reported that the Thai human rights group Cross Cultural Foundation said it would pursue legal action to compel officials to testify on the status of the Uyghurs. Phil Robertson, director of the Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates (AHRLA) group, said that the deportations “totally destroyed” the “charade” that the current Thai government was different to the previous one “when it comes to transnational repression and cooperating with authoritarian neighbours.” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the deportation “in the strongest possible terms” and issued a security alert for American citizens in Thailand. Amnesty International’s China Director Sarah Brooks called the deportation “unimaginably cruel” and added, “The Thai government should have protected these men, but instead it has wilfully exposed them to these grave risks.” Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said, “Thailand blatantly disregarded domestic law and its international obligations by forcibly sending these Uyghurs to China to face persecution. After 11 years of inhumane detention in Thailand’s immigration lockup, these men are now at grave risk of being tortured, forcibly disappeared, and detained for long periods by the Chinese government.” Lee Chung Lun at the International Service for Human Rights described how the move “raised concerns over Thailand’s credibility as a UN Human Rights Council member”:
The latest deportation followed the same troubling pattern and demonstrated Thailand’s continued disregard for its obligations under international law, particularly the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits returning individuals to countries where they face a credible risk of persecution, torture, or enforced disappearance. As a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), Thailand is legally bound to prevent such returns. The deportation also contradicts Thailand’s own Act on Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearances, which codifies non-refoulement into national law, and reflects a worsening trend of transnational repression against dissidents and diaspora communities in Southeast Asia.
[…] It is ludicrous that on the heels of taking its seat as a Human Rights Council member, Thailand chose to ignore compelling UN evidence and instead pointed to Beijing ‘reassurances’ that no harm would be done to the deported Uyghurs. This casts serious doubt at Thailand’s own commitments as a Council member to uphold the ‘highest human rights standards, and its credibility to serve on the Council. [Source]
The U.N.’s role in the affair has been controversial. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk stated on Thursday, “This 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.” The U.N. Refugee Agency claimed after the deportation that it had “repeatedly sought access to the group and assurances from Thai authorities that these individuals, who had expressed a fear of return, would not be deported. No such access was granted, and when contacted for clarification, the Royal Thai Government authorities stated that no decision had been made to deport the group.” However, several activists and researchers criticized the U.N. response, saying that the Refugee Agency acted too late and refused to engage with their concerns. Last year, The New Humanitarian reported on internal documents from the U.N. Refugee Agency which revealed that it rebuffed requests from the Thai government to assist 48 Uyghur asylum seekers held in Thai detention centers. Nyrola Elimä was one of the first researchers to publicly draw attention to this threat of deportation, and she criticized the lack of response to her warnings.
In other news related to Chinese transnational repression, Simon Leplâtre at Le Monde reported that UNESCO, under pressure from its Chinese sponsors, censored Uyghur linguist Abduweli Ayup, who was invited to talk at an event titled “Language Technologies for All” in Paris last week:
[T]he day before his scheduled speech on Tuesday the 24th on the sidelines of the event, the linguist received an email informing him that it had been cancelled. “I asked for an explanation, but they didn’t give me any,” the researcher said. The next day, UNESCO officials claimed there was a “misunderstanding.” According to information from Le Monde, UNESCO officials pressured the organisers to cancel Mr. Ayup’s speech.
[…] According to sources within the organizing committee, the order did indeed come from UNESCO officials, apparently under pressure from China. “They told us that the Chinese were unhappy, especially the private donors, and that as a result it was not possible to hold the presentation that was planned for the next day," said a researcher who was a member of the committee. This was confirmed by a second source within the committee.
Two Chinese companies were among the event’s sponsors, including iFlytek, which specializes in voice recognition. The company, a jewel of artificial intelligence, offers both transcription services to the general public and voice identification to police forces, including in Xinjiang. “I’ve been working on this presentation for two months. [Its cancellation by the organizers] is a deep lack of respect. I don’t understand why China can control an event like this, in France,” said Mr. Ayup. [French]
