They arrived in Thailand ten years ago as their first stop on their way to Türkiye and have remained isolated ever since. They would have been forced to sign an agreement by which they agreed to be repatriated to China, where their people suffer harsh repression in Xinjiang. Bangkok does not adhere to the United Nations Refugee Convention.
Bangkok () – The Bangkok government would be organizing the expulsion of 43 Chinese of the Uighur ethnic group who have been in the country for ten years, the last of a group of 300 who have already been partly repatriated and partly welcomed in another country . The Thai authorities forced the Uyghurs on January 8 to sign accepting the expulsion. The decision is probably related to the imminent changing of the guard in Washington and a lower risk of receiving pressure or sanctions, but also to the upcoming 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Thai kingdom and Beijing.
Angkhana Neelapaijit – an activist and former head of the National Human Rights Commission who denounced what was happening and asked Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra for clarification – believes that the measure would expose these people belonging to the Muslim ethnic group, which was once majority in the western province of Xinjiang and is currently the subject of strong repression (with complaints that even extend to the extraction of organs for transplants). In turn – through humanitarian organizations monitoring their situation in the Suan Phlu detention center in Bangkok – the Uighurs have launched an appeal to be allowed to expatriate to third countries or be recognized as asylum seekers.
Chinese influence takes advantage of the needs of Thailand, which faces growing economic difficulties in a context of political instability, and leaves those who take refuge in the country to escape persecution or war in a precarious situation.
A decade ago, Uyghurs fleeing repression arrived in Thailand as a transit country to Türkiye, with which they share religion and cultural and linguistic traits. Of the 350 Uyghurs detained in March 2014 before they could cross the border into Muslim Malaysia, about 170 – mostly women and children – were put on flights to Turkey 16 months later. Another 109 were expelled to the People’s Republic of China and lost track of. Of those who remained in Thailand and were taken into immigration custody, a dozen managed to escape, five were sentenced to prison for attempting to escape in 2020, and five died in custody, including two minors.
The fate of the other 43 has been marked until now by conditions that border the limit of what is tolerable, without contact with their families or their lawyers and separated from the other detainees. Representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights have also not been allowed to have any type of contact with them. Such conditions are possible because the “Land of Smiles” does not adhere to the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention and because the law considers these types of asylum seekers to constitute a threat to national security and, therefore, , cannot be included in the National Screening Mechanism, which opens the possibility of residing in Thailand under certain restrictions while waiting to be relocated.
Photo: Flick/langkawi
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