Uyghurs Detained in Thailand Say They Would Live 'Like Slaves' If Sent Back to China

Two Uyghur men in Thailand face deportation to China, and activists have warned that their lives would be in grave danger if they are sent back. One of the men has said he would live like a slave if he were returned to China.

Last year, Thai authorities forcibly deported 40 Uyghur men to China despite pleas from the men themselves and from the United Nations. The United States and Canada had reportedly offered to resettle them, but Bangkok appeared keen to avoid upsetting Beijing. The United Nations has said the whereabouts of those returned remain unknown.

Now two more men fear the same fate. Human rights groups said they were recently transferred to an immigration detention centre, and there are fears Thai authorities may once again give in to pressure from Beijing.

The girlfriend of one of the men, whose name is being withheld for security reasons, said her boyfriend told the Guardian he wanted to go anywhere else but China.

Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, called for the men to be allowed to travel to a safe third country. She said previous Thai governments had kept Uyghurs in inhumane detention for years and then complied with Beijing's demands to send them to China, where they were forcibly disappeared.

The two men had been serving a seven-year prison sentence for offences related to an attempted escape from immigration detention in January 2020. They were part of a group of more than 200 Uyghur men, women and children who were detained by Thai police in 2014 near the border with Malaysia after fleeing China.

Since 2014, the women and children in the group have been released to Turkey, while the men have been deported to China in separate batches. That has drawn criticism from the United Nations and from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The Uyghurs are a mainly Turkic Muslim minority from the Xinjiang region of China. They have faced decades of oppressive and discriminatory treatment from the Chinese authorities. Hundreds of thousands of people have been held in detention camps aimed at stamping out their cultural identity.

The United Nations has condemned Beijing's crackdown as a potential crime against humanity. Beijing, however, has defended its policies in Xinjiang as aimed at poverty alleviation and counter-terrorism.

In July, the boyfriend of Marzeyya Kasem, who asked to be referred to by her Islamic alias, wrote to her in a letter that he would be like a slave if he was sent back to China. He wrote that he sometimes wondered why he was a human being, what he had done wrong against China, and that he did not want to go back to China. Kasem shared the letter with a Thai rights group.

The two men facing imminent deportation reportedly pleaded their case to Thailand's National Human Rights Commission office on Wednesday.

Relatives of Uyghurs have said the Chinese government was paranoid about Uyghurs going to a safe country in large numbers and living together, and preferred to have them deported.

It is not clear whether China has issued a formal extradition request for the two men. But Chaipruak Doungprapat, Thailand's national security council chief, told reporters that the men, along with three other Uyghurs who are still in prison, had arrest warrants outstanding in China.

Some have questioned whether the criminal warrants could be credible, given that at least one of them, Kasem's boyfriend, was a minor when he left China. Kasem asked that if they were really wanted for a crime in China, why China did not immediately issue an Interpol red notice when they were detained in 2014.

Kasem believes that because Thailand was criticised for last year's mass deportation, this time the authorities were trying to establish a more credible legal basis for the move.

A spokesperson for China's foreign affairs ministry said cooperation between China and Thailand in combating cross-border illegal and criminal activities such as smuggling is consistent with the laws of the two countries, international law and international practice. A spokesperson for Thailand's foreign affairs ministry declined to comment.