An immigration detention center where a group of Uighurs are likely to be detained in Bangkok.
Bangkok:
Nearly a decade after fleeing China, more than 50 Uighurs are living in Thai detention centers, living in constant fear of being sent back.
China has been accused of serious human rights abuses against Uighurs in Xinjiang dating back to at least the 1990s, with the United States calling Beijing’s treatment of the mostly Muslim minority a “genocide”.
A damning UN report released in August detailed violations, including torture and forced labor and “large-scale” arbitrary detention, which Beijing calls the Vocational Training Center.
Many Uyghurs have fled China in the past few years, some traveling from Myanmar to Thailand, but dozens remain under house arrest there – observers say, clearing the state’s desire to avoid angering Beijing or Washington. is prey.
Groups of Uighurs arrested in 2013 and 2014 are currently being held in immigration centers around Thailand, while authorities are considering their fate.
Neither his exact location nor his exact number is clear – a group of Thai rights organizations say there are 52, but a senator working on the case says 59.
Immigration officials have not responded to AFP’s requests for information.
Abdulla Sami, 35, a Uighur from Xinjiang who fled China via Thailand and now lives in Austria, has been in contact with some of the detainees.
“The situation is terrible,” he told AFP.
“They are living in fear that if they are ever sent back to China, they will face persecution there.”
It’s not an idle fear – in 2015 the Thai government forcibly deported 109 Uighurs to China, in defiance of US pleas to protect them.
That move drew strong condemnation from Washington and the United Nations, which said it was a violation of international law.
It also sparked violent protests in Turkey – where nationalist hardliners see Uighurs as part of a global Turkic-speaking family – forcing the temporary closure of Thailand’s embassy and consulate.
A month later, a bomb attack on a shrine in Bangkok killed 20 people, most of them ethnic Chinese tourists. The trial of two Chinese Uyghur men accused of assault will resume next week after a long delay.
‘Security Risk’
Around the same time, in mid-2015, Thailand sent 170 Uyghur women and children to Turkey.
But some Uighurs remained, and three men made headlines in Thai media in July after they fled a southern immigration center, one of which was still believed to be at large.
But the details of those detained are still unclear, with no concrete information available about who they are.
“It is clear that Uighurs are considered a special security issue,” said Chalida Tjaronsuk, head of the human rights association People’s Empowerment Foundation, which has recently led calls to free detainees.
The group is believed to have been converted from immigration center to immigration center for the past eight years.
“Nobody has an answer as to how long they’ll be there,” said Chalida Tjaronsuk.
diplomatic balance
“What’s life like in a prison cell like this for almost 10 years?” asked Thai senator Zaki Phithakkumpol, one of the leaders of the Islamic Central Council, which represents the state’s eight million Muslims.
Support for the detainees has grown in recent months, with eight Thai human rights organizations urging authorities in July not to send them to China.
The renewed attention comes as Thailand prepares to host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit next month, with both China and the United States increasingly vying for influence in Southeast Asia.
Thailand’s junta reached Beijing after seizing power in 2014, but in recent years it has sought to forge a path between China and the United States, the kingdom’s oldest ally.
“Recently, Bangkok has been rebalancing its relationship between Washington and Beijing, moving rather closer to the United States,” political professor Thitinen Pongsudhirak from Chulalongkorn University told AFP.
The massive diplomatic and security repercussions from the 2015 deportation may also have contributed to the government’s hesitation, but it has remained silent about its next steps.
When contacted by AFP, a foreign ministry spokesman said the situation in the state “remains the same”, without giving further details.
Mr Sami, who has been in contact with several people, says his fears may not have changed.
Every time he spoke, he would say, “I tell them sadly that there is no news, nothing about them.”
Human Rights Watch’s Asia deputy director Phil Robertson said the Uighurs’ behavior was “absolutely shocking” and that Thailand should release them immediately.
“Thai immigration is acting as if to avoid offending China, if necessary it will keep these people indefinitely for the rest of their lives,” Robertson told AFP.
“If there is any hell on earth, Thailand built it for these Uyghur captives.”
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)