Thailand deports dozens of Uyghurs to China, activists say

CHIANG RAI, Thailand — Activist groups in Thailand say more than 40 ethnic Muslim Uyghurs held in detention for more than a decade have been forcibly repatriated to China.

Amid rumors of their pending deportation back in January, U.N. officials and rights groups had urged against the move, and newly confirmed U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he would press the Thai government not to send the Uyghurs back. At the time, the Thai government said there were no plans to deport them.

Thai officials have so far declined to comment on Thursday’s report, as has China’s Foreign Ministry. Rights groups accuse China of systematic abuses of its mainly Muslim ethnic Uyghur minority, charges China denies.

Early this morning, several vehicles with their windows blacked out left the immigration center in Bangkok where the Uyghurs were being held, according to images captured and reported by Thai media. Several hours later, an unscheduled China Southern Airlines flight took off from Bangkok, arriving in China’s Xinjiang region about six hours later.

Phil Robertson, director of Asia Human Rights and Labor Advocates, said it was clear that “Thai officials involved in this forced return, using blacked out trucks and a barrage of lying denials, have the blood of these Uyghur men on their hands.”

The detainees were part of a group of some 300 Uyghurs who fled China and were arrested in Thailand in 2014. Thailand deported more than 100 of them to China in 2015, drawing condemnation from the international community. “None of them,” said Robertson, “were ever heard from again.”

A month later, a bombing at a busy Bangkok shrine popular with Chinese tourists killed 20 people. Thai authorities concluded at the time that the attack was linked to a separate crackdown on a human trafficking ring, but did not specifically link the group responsible to Uyghur militants, as most analysts have. Two Uyghurs were arrested in connection with the incident and charged with murder and illegal possession of explosives. Their trial is ongoing and has been repeatedly delayed.