Thai police said Thursday that they discovered the families in a raid in the kingdom&#39;s deep south. The asylum seekers, who appeared to be preparing to head elsewhere, presented themselves as Turkish rather than Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking, predominantly Muslim group from China&#39;s northwestern Xinjiang region. 
	&quot;We are urging the Thai government to provide full protection to the victims (and) to ensure that their humanitarian needs are met,&quot; State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters. 
	The latest annual US human rights report said that China carries out &quot;severe official repression&quot; of Uighurs in Xinjiang, including over their freedom of speech and religion. 
	Agence France-Presse 
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US urges Thailand to protect Uighur asylum seekers

WASHINGTON - The United States on Friday urged Thailand to protect about 200 asylum seekers from China's Uighur minority, with activists fearing that Beijing will pressure the kingdom to deport them.