UN slams deportation of Uighurs

THE UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the broader international community yesterday expressed alarm after the government deported some 100 Uighur Muslims to China, a move that prompted an attack on the Thai embassy in Istanbul. 

It is believed that the Turkic-speaking deportees were taken to China on two flights early yesterday, despite having indicated that they did not wish to be deported to China. The group may have included women and children, according to a UN statement. 

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said Thailand, as an illegal migrant transit country, repatriated the Uighurs in accordance with its international obligations and national procedures. 

“We repatriated them in accordance with the processes and evidence [of their nationality],” he said, noting that the illegal migrant problem would be solved at the government level. 

The government’s Deputy Spokesman Major-General Werachon Sukondhapatipak said the Uighurs were deported after it was determined they were Chinese nationals. 

The group entered the Kingdom in March last year, expressing their desire to be settled in third countries. Thailand treated them as illegal migrants, detained them and began the deportation process.

The authorities deported 170 Uighurs to Turkey late last month, according to Werachon. 

Werachon said the government understood that the Uighurs had political difficulties with the Chinese government.

But the deportation was conducted in accordance with Thai and international laws as well as justice and humanitarian processes, he said. Uighurs identified as Turkish were repatriated to Turkey while Uighurs who are Chinese nationals are sent to China, he said. 

“Indeed, China disagreed with us over the repatriation of 170 of them to Turkey but as long as they can prove Turkish nationality, we have to send them to their place of origin,” he said.

“For the group repatriated to China, the Chinese government said it had guaranteed their safety and will bring them into the Chinese justice system,” Werachon said. “Security officials of the two countries reached an agreement on the conditions [of the repatriations] before the repatriations,” he said. 

Thailand provided sufficient humanitarian assistance to all illegal migrants, he said, noting that there were some 50 Uighurs in the process of being repatriated.

Prayut said he could explain to Muslims that his government had no intention of harming them. “Or do you want us to feed them and all their offspring?” he furiously asked reporters yesterday.

The UNHCR has been aware of this case for several months, and made numerous interventions on the Uighurs’ behalf to the government. In response, the agency was given assurances that the matter would be handled in accordance with international legal standards, and that the group would continue to receive protection, the UN said.

“While we are seeking further clarifications on what happened exactly, we are shocked by this deportation of some 100 people and consider it a flagrant violation of international law,” said Volker Turk, UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, who is currently in the region.

“I strongly urge the Thai authorities to investigate this matter and appeal to Thailand to honour its fundamental international obligations, notably the principle of non-refoulement, and to refrain from such deportations in the future,” he added.

The UNHCR also urged the government in the strongest possible terms to allow the remaining Uighurs in the country to depart voluntarily as soon as a country of their choice was willing to receive them.

A Thailand researcher at Human Rights Watch, Sunai Phasuk, said the organisation was shocked over the deportations. 

By forcing them to face danger, the government had violated the non-refoulement principle, he said. 

The Nation received no official comment from the Chinese embassy in Thailand while the Turkish embassy said it was waiting for official instructions from Ankara.

Human rights lawyer Surapong Kongchantuk, chairman of the Lawyers Council of Thailand’s human rights subcommittee on ethnic minorities, said that states should be careful when determining Uighurs’ legal status. Upon their arrival in Thailand, they were considered illegal migrants but the authorities should examine why they decided to leave their homes to come to Thailand and where they wished to go, said the human rights lawyer. 

The treatment of the deported Uighurs was a hot topic in the inner circle of the concerned agencies, including the National Security Council, the Defence Ministry and the Foreign Ministry, as they had different approaches to the issue. 

The security agencies wanted to repatriate them to China while the Foreign Ministry wanted more support from the international community. 

There was no basis for the UN to get involved in the case, as the group did not seek asylum. 

A source close to the case said all of the Uighurs identified themselves as Turks and wanted to go to Turkey. 

The UN consistently communicated with Thai authorities that they must not be sent to a place where their lives and freedoms could be in danger, and they should have been free to go to a place that had agreed to receive them.