Today (27 February 2025), the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) condemns the reported deportation of at least 40 Uyghur detainees from Thailand’s immigration center in Bangkok to China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
“We condemn the deportations in the strongest possible terms,” said Livio Zilli, ICJ’s Deputy Program Director of Law and Policy.
“The Thai authorities forcibly removed these Uyghur detainees despite an abundance of credible evidence of repression and egregious human rights violations against the Uyghur population in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region at the hands of the Chinese authorities, which, in and of themselves, provides more than subststantial grounds that they would face a real risk of grave human rights violations upon return.”
Until the Commissioner-General of Royal Thai Police confirmed that the deportation was in response to a request from the Chinese government, the fate of the Uyghur detainees, who had been held in Thailand for more than 10 years, was unclear. Early this morning, there were sightings of a motorcade of detention vans with covered windows leaving the Immigration Detention Center (IDC) in Bangkok, followed by reports of a flight that was said to have landed in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region several hours later.
China’s official Xinhua news agency, as well as the Facebook page of the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok, today reported that 40 Chinese citizens “who had entered Thailand illegally” and had been detained in Thailand for more than 10 years were repatriated, but did not specify if they were Uyghurs.
“The Thai government was fully aware of the real risk of torture, other ill-treatment, enforced disappearance, and other irreparable harm faced by Uyghurs in China. These concerns have been consistently brought to their attention by civil society organizations, Thailand’s National Human Rights Commission, UN agencies, and others, yet the forced return still occurred,” added Zilli.
The deportations clearly violated the principle of non-refoulement by which Thailand is bound under international law, including as a party to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
The deportations were also contrary to Thailand’s domestic laws, which prohibit the removal of individuals to countries or places where they face a real risk of torture, ill-treatment, enforced disappearance, in any manner whatsoever.
Background
According to a 2022 report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the repression and egregious human rights violations against the Uyghur population in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region by the Chinese government may amount to crimes against humanity.
The group of at least 45 Uyghur men had been detained in Thailand’s IDC (40) and Klong Prem Prison (5) since 2014, after fleeing China’s Xinjiang province. Treated as “illegal” immigrants, they have persistently demanded to be resettled in a third country.
This is not the first time that the Thai authorities have carried out deportations in violations of the non-refoulement principle. On 8 July 2015, the Thai government, led by then-Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-Ocha, deported 109 Uyghurs to China at the request of Chinese authorities, violating the international law principle of non-refoulement and Thailand’s obligations.
Prior to the deportation, Uyghur detainees in Thailand’s IDCs have also faced seriously inadequate and inhumane conditions, including severe overcrowding, poor ventilation, inadequate food, lack of access to medical care and other basic necessities, and the denial of other rights. In some cases, these poor detention conditions have resulted in the deaths of some detainees. Between 2014 and 2023, at least five Uyghurs, including a newborn and a child, died in custody. In 2023 alone, two Uyghur detainees died in IDC, reportedly due to pneumonia and liver failure.
