BANGKOK — Thai human rights activists on Wednesday night said at a panel discussion at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand that five Uyghurs currently serving prison term for fleeing the Thai Immigration Detention Centre could eventually be deported to China and face possible detention, torture and forced labour. They urged the Thai government to eventually allow these people to seek asylum in a third country.
The five are serving 6-year prison terms at Klong Prem Prison, a maximum-security prison, but Human Rights Watch senior Thai researcher Sunai Phasuk warns the forced deportation to China could happen sooner than later as their prison terms could be reduced due to good conduct and on special royal occasions. He also urges the Paetongtarn government to be sincere in ensuring the safety and freedom of the 100 Uyghurs sent back to China at the end of February.
“The Thai government has been lying all along,” he said, referring to the breach of non refoulement principle, and added that Thai diplomats in Beijing, who will now be entrusted with the duty of checking on the well-being of the 100 Uyghurs in Xinjiang, should at least try to do their job properly.
“At least show that Thailand has a spine, not bow to the master in Beijing and behave like a vassal state,” said Sunai, who was a panelist at the FCCT on the topic of the Thai government deporting Uyghurs and its recent trip to Xinjiang.
Chalida Tajaroeunsuk, a senior NGO activist working for the rights of Uyghur detainees in Thailand, was another panelist. She warns that the Chinese Embassy is very persistent in pressuring the Thai government to hand over the 5 remaining Uyghurs while Western embassies who work behind the scene are not as direct.
She added the Thai government has also refused to allow related UN agencies to meet with the five in order to start the asylum process, thus making it difficult, if not impossible for Western embassies to help these people.
Speaking on Zoom from the US, Abdulhakim Idris, executive director of the Center for Uyghur Studies in Washington DC, said it’s a shame that the government of Malaysia and Indonesia, both predominantly Muslim countries, have failed to assist the Uyghurs in Thailand. “Shame on Malaysia and Indonesia,” said Idris. “Thailand became complicit in this genocide, used as a tool [by China] to cover up this genicide.”
Phil Robertson, moderator of the panel and FCCT Board Member said Thai government representatives have been invited but decided not to send a representative. Robertson told Khaosod English the FCCT did not reach out to the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok, however.
Khaosod English contacted a Chinese Embassy staff for possible comment but there was no reply as of press time. Also, the US Embassy paid for the entrance fees charged by the FCCT as they invited a dozen Thai journalists to cover the talk on Wednesday night.
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