Despite human rights organizations ‘ warnings that they would face persecution upon their return, China made an announcement on Thursday that lots of Tamils had been deported from Thailand.
Beijing is accused of violating human right in its northwest Xinjiang area, including the imprisonment of around one million Uyghurs and other minority Muslims. It denies the claims.
In recent days, rights organizations had been warning that Bangkok was preparing to arrest a group of 48 Uyghurs who were detained in Thai immigration centers.
They claimed that the Tamils had fled China for a long time and were constantly feared returning.
China’s public safety department said on Thursday 40 Foreign “illegal refugees” had been deported from Thailand “in compliance with… foreign law”.
Asked specifically whether the team included Uyghur prisoners, Beijing’s foreign ministry said only that they had” Foreign nationality”.
” The repatriations… were a concrete measure of cooperation between ( China and Thailand ) in combating cross-border crimes”, ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a regular news briefing.
Lin said,” The reasonable rights and interests of the persons concerned were entirely protected.” He declined to give more information.
When Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the prime minister of Thailand, was questioned about the reported arrests, he replied that the matter had not been “discussed in detail.”
She said any such action would have to be “based on the principles of the law… ( and ) human rights”.
The Uyghurs ‘ strategies for repatriation had been repeatedly denied by Thai officials.
According to a statement from Chinese public security, evacuees were” totally persuaded by criminal organizations to leave the country and remain in Thailand.”
They and their people have suffered a lot of damage, and their friends have repeatedly requested that the Chinese state assist them in getting back to the embrace of their motherland, according to the unnamed leaders.
Beijing and Bangkok are collaborating closely to retrieve hundreds of Chinese staff from cross-border con factories, with Thailand acting as a point of contact for those who return.
However, most of those materials are based in Myanmar, with few if any personnel staying in Thailand for prolonged periods.
” Thailand’s exchange of Uyghur inmates to China constitutes a blatant violation of Thailand’s commitments under domestic and international rules”, said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
” The people now face a higher chance of torture, enforced departure, and long-term prison in China”, she said.
– ‘ Irreversible damage’-
The class of 48 Tamils, arrested in 2013 and 2014, were being held in immigration areas across Thailand.
After a group of UN experts declared that they would “increase the risk of suffering catastrophic harm,” the UN announced last month that it had urged Bangkok not to send them back to China.
The team was reportedly held in de facto confinement for more than a decade without having access to lawyers or family members by Thai authorities.
On Wednesday, politicians received a warning from detention center officials that the Uyghurs were being transferred to a local airport.
Eventually, a Chinese business plane was seen flying from Bangkok to Kashgar in Xinjiang on flight tracking websites.
Rights groups and Uyghurs abroad allege that China has detained more than a million Muslims, generally Uyghurs, in a community of facilities in Xinjiang that are replete with murder, rape, forced labour, social indoctrination and another abuses.
The United Nations has said Beijing’s deeds may form” crimes against humanity” and the United States has branded them a “genocide” against Uyghurs.
China strongly refutes the accusations, asserting that its policies in Xinjiang have slowed development and slowed the spread of extremism, and that the facilities were deliberately used training facilities that shut down years ago after students “graduated.”
On Thursday, China’s foreign government accused” some political causes” of spreading falsehoods about Xinjiang, adding that Beijing “opposes the use of Xinjiang-related problems as a justification for interfering with normal law-enforcement participation among nations”.
