By Panarat Thepgumpanat and Panu Wongcha-um
BANGKOK (Reuters) – China has assured Thailand that 40 Chinese Uyghurs it returned on Thursday would be looked after, Thailand’s defence minister said, confirming a secretive pre-dawn deportation that the United Nations and human rights groups condemned.
The move came despite urging by United Nations human rights experts not to send back the Uyghurs Thailand has held in detention for a decade, warning they were at risk of torture, ill-treatment and “irreparable harm” if returned.
The Uyghurs were sent back in accordance with international standards, Phumtham Wechayachai told Reuters, in Thailand’s first confirmation of the deportation of the Uyghurs, its second in the past decade.
“It was done in accordance with Thai law and international principles. There are no problems. They will be looked after well because they are their people,” said Phumtham, who is also a deputy premier.
“There are undergoing health checks. After that, they will be sent home. Their relatives have received them,” he said, adding the chief of Thailand’s national security council had travelled on the same plane as the detainees.
Rights groups accuse Beijing of widespread abuses of Uyghurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority numbering about 10 million in the western region of Xinjiang. Beijing denies any abuses.
The UN refugee agency said it had repeatedly sought access to the group and assurances from Thai authorities that they would not be deported.
“This is a clear violation of the principle of non-refoulement and the Royal Thai government’s obligations under international law,” said UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, Ruvendrini Menikdiwela.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said the detainees were repatriated in line with the laws of both countries.
Lin did not directly answer a question on whether those returned were Uyghurs, but said there were forces at work that wished to spread lies about Xinjiang, which China considered interference in its internal affairs.
“It is a concrete measure for both sides to cooperate in combating cross-border crimes such as smuggling, and the legitimate rights and interests of relevant personnel are fully protected,” Lin told a regular briefing.
PRE-DAWN TRANSFER
Concerns grew in Thailand early on Thursday after media reports and images showed several trucks with windows covered in black tape leaving the Bangkok immigration centre where 48 Uyghurs had been held.
A few hours later, at 4.48 a.m., an unscheduled China Southern Airlines flight left the Don Mueang airport in the Thai capital to land six hours later in Kashgar in China’s Xinjiang region, tracker Flightradar24 showed.
The 48 Uyghurs held in Thailand were part of a group of 300 who fled China and were arrested in 2014. Some were sent back to China and others to Turkey, with the rest kept in Thai custody.
Some diplomats and security analysts believe Thailand’s widely-condemned deportation of 100 Uyghurs to China in July 2015 led to the bombing a month later of a busy Bangkok shrine that killed 20 people in the worst attack of its kind on Thai soil.
Thai authorities at the time concluded the shrine attack was linked to their crackdown on a human trafficking ring, without specifically linking the group to the Uyghurs.
Two ethnic Uyghur men were arrested and their trial is proceeding, despite repeated delays.
The status of the remaining eight Uyghurs in Thailand was not immediately clear.
Human Rights Watch said the transfer of Uyghurs was a “blatant violation of Thailand’s obligations”, while the Thai rights group Cross Cultural Foundation said it would petition a court on Thursday for an immediate inquiry.
When asked earlier about the deportation of the Uyghurs, Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said, “This sort of issue, for any country, one has to follow the law, international process and human rights.”
(Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Additional reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng in Bangkok, Laurie Chen and Mei Mei Chu in Beijing and Farah Master in Hong Kong; Editing by Martin Petty and Clarence Fernandez)
