Amnesty urges Thailand to halt forced return of two Uyghur men to China

Amnesty International has called for an immediate halt to any plans by the Thai authorities to forcibly return two Uyghur men to China.

It cited reports of possible deportation and said the men could face torture, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance if sent back.

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, said the men had fled persecution in China and could face similar abuses if returned.

Both had told their lawyers they feared for their lives and were unwilling to go back.

Amnesty called for their release so they could live safely and freely, and for access to lawyers of their choice.

It urged Thailand to work urgently with the international community to find a country willing to receive them and other Uyghurs still detained in Thailand so they could leave voluntarily for a place of safety.

Two of the five Uyghurs still in Thailand were released from prison on Wednesday (October 21, 2026) following a royal pardon before being transferred to an immigration detention centre in Bangkok.

Amnesty said the Thai authorities had since denied them access to their lawyers and barred civil society organisations and the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand (NHRCT) from meeting them.

General Chaipruak Doungprapat, secretary-general of the National Security Council (NSC), said at Government House at 12.35pm on Nov 4 that, to his knowledge, the men’s lawyer had already visited them.

He said the matter fell outside the scope of government policy and that the court would decide it through normal judicial procedures.

Chaipruak said all five were from the same group as those previously sent back to China.

Amnesty’s account described their imprisonment as stemming from an attempt to escape from immigration detention.

Chaipruak said they had been prosecuted for escaping from custody and that the three still in prison had a little over a year left to serve.

Chaipruak cited Chinese arrest warrants for all five and the fact that none had been granted refugee status as two differences from the earlier case.

He said China was using its treaty with Thailand to seek their extradition in connection with alleged offences.

Chaipruak said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would check the warrants on receipt of a formal extradition request from China for the five men.

Prosecutors would take the case forward if the warrants were valid.

The men had appointed lawyers to contest the case, he said.

A move to another country would depend on the outcome of their challenge and whether a country agreed to take them.

He said the treaty would require extradition if the court found they had committed the offences in question.

The two men have been held in Thailand for more than 12 years.

They were among more than 300 Uyghurs detained without charge by the Thai authorities on Mar 13, 2014, after fleeing persecution and discrimination in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Thailand allowed 173 women and children from the group to travel to Turkey in June 2015.

Amnesty described the return of at least 109 Uyghurs to China as unlawful.

The Chinese embassy in Thailand wrote to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Jan 7, 2025, asking it to send the 45 Uyghurs still in the country back to China.

The Thai authorities forcibly returned 40 of them the following month.

Callamard urged Thailand to avoid a repeat, saying those deportations had gone ahead despite the risk of harm and breached international law.

Thai representatives visited Xinjiang twice following the deportations, in February and March 2025, at the Chinese government’s invitation.

The visits were intended to provide reassurance through diplomatic channels.

Non-governmental organisations monitoring the case reported that Thai officials met fewer than 10 of those sent back.

There has been no further information on whether all are alive and safe, and their places of detention have not been disclosed.

Callamard stressed that Thailand was obliged to refrain from returning anyone to a country where they faced a real risk of torture or serious human rights violations, even if China gave diplomatic assurances about their safety.

Amnesty continues to oppose assurances that returnees will be spared torture or cruel treatment.

It considers them unreliable and says they may run counter to the universal prohibition on torture under international law.

Thailand has obligations under the Convention against Torture and the principle of non-refoulement, which bars states from returning people to countries or territories where they face a real risk of persecution or human rights violations.

Section 13 of the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act, in force since 2023, also prohibits deportation where there are reasonable grounds to believe a person could face torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, or enforced disappearance.

Amnesty International published a major report in 2021 documenting evidence of crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, including imprisonment, torture and persecution of Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups.

A United Nations assessment in August 2022 reached similar findings.

Amnesty said the Chinese government had yet to implement the recommendations, provide remedies for those affected or investigate to bring those responsible to justice.

It said the government continued to suppress criticism at home and abroad, circulate material denying allegations of human rights abuses and pursue policies of discrimination and forced cultural assimilation.