Embassies ordered to ensure safety of Thai expatriates
THE Foreign Ministry has instructed Thai embassies and consulates around the world to ensure safety for Thai nationals, following the attack on a Thai consulate in Turkey three days ago.
Sek Wannamethee, director-general of the ministry’s Department of Information, said yesterday that Thai missions overseas were also instructed to increase security measures within their compounds.
The move came after some 200 Turkish protesters stormed into the Thai honorary consulate in Istanbul on Wednesday night, in protest at Thailand’s deportation of more than 100 Uighur Muslims to China.
The protesters broke down the doors to the building, smashed its windows, pulled down the sign outside and damaged furnishings inside. The Thai flag was pulled down and the building pelted with stones. Files and documents were flung outside and littered the street.
Sek said the Turkish government had increased security to the Thai Embassy in Ankara, the capital in the centre of the country, and the Thai community after the Istanbul attack.
Consular services were suspended again yesterday at the embassy for the safety of Thai expatriates there.
Meanwhile, the Thai Embassy in Berlin, in Germany, warned through its Facebook page that there would be a protest outside the mission later yesterday.
The embassy was informed by local police, who got a request from protest organisers to hold the demonstration over Thailand’s forced repatriation of 100 Uighur migrants back to China.
Thai nationals in Germany were advised by the embassy to avoid visiting the compound during the time of protest yesterday evening.
Sek said yesterday that German police increased security for the Thai Embassy in Berlin in preparation for the demonstration.
The Thai consulate in Frankfurt, Germany, also advised Thai nationals in Europe to avoid commenting or arguing about the issue in the presence of Uighurs or Turks.
Uighurs in China’s Xinjiang region, numbering about 10 million, say they face discrimination from Beijing. China has launched a crackdown in the region in response to rising violence that state authorities blame on Islamist separatists.
Under pressure from Beijing, countries including Cambodia, Malaysia and Pakistan have all forcibly returned members of the ethnic minority to China in recent years, Agence France-Presse reported.
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