EXPLAINED: Thailand’s repatriation of 40 Uyghur refugees to China

Thailand’s decision to deport 40 Uyghurs back to China after languishing in a Bangkok detention center for over a decade raises concerns about their fate — and questions about what they were doing there in the first place.

What is known about the Uyghurs sent back to China from Thailand?

The men originally came from the Xinjiang region of northwestern China where 12 million Uyghurs live under Beijing’s harsh rule. Many have been subjected to human rights abuses and detained in concentration camps that Beijing says are vocational training centers.

In 2014, the men were part of a larger group of Uyghurs who tried to escape Xinjiang through Thailand, but were caught. Ever since, they have been held at the Immigration Detention Center in Bangkok, a prison-like facility.

After more than 10 years, on Thursday 40 Uyghur men were taken in trucks to Don Mueang International Airport to be deported to Xinjiang.

Why are Uyghurs trying to escape from China?

Uyghur Muslims chafe under what they view as Chinese colonialism in their ancient homeland and resent curbs on their religion and culture under China’s drive to Sinicize ethnic minorities.

While tensions have simmered for decades, a major turning point in the Uyghurs’ relations with the Communist government in Beijing was deadly unrest in July 2009 in Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi.

A Uyghur protest against racism and mistreatment spiraled into three days of communal violence between Uyghurs and Han Chinese that left at least 200 people dead and 1,700 injured.

Beijing responded with severe and escalating repression, including mass surveillance, a “strike hard” crackdown since 2014 – the year the 40 deported Uyghurs were arrested in Thailand.

The campaign featured arrests, separation of children from their parents, and destruction of mosques and other key elements of Uyghurs’ distinct cultural and religious identity.

In 2017, Chinese authorities began detaining Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims en masse in what Beijing called “re-education” camps and prisons set up to eradicate religious extremism. Millions underwent political indoctrination and some were subjected to forced labor, torture, rape and the sterilization of women.

Many Western nations condemned well-documented acts of repression under the crackdown as genocide or crimes against humanity. Some states imposed sanctions to block the import of products made in Xinjiang with forced labor.

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What is the likely fate of the repatriated Uyghurs, based on past examples?

The United States, United Nations and human rights group fear that the men will be tortured and subjected to forced labor as punishment for attempting to flee.

Thailand said that it agreed to the deportation only after receiving assurances from Beijing that they would be unharmed. But what little is known about previous batches of Uyghurs forcibly repatriated to China appears to justify the fears expressed by critics of Thursday’s rendition.

In December 2009, Cambodia deported 20 Uyghur asylum-seekers back to China. Last December, in the first word about them in 15 years, a relative of one of the detainees in Turkey revealed to Radio Free Asia the fate of some of the 20.

Ayshemgul Omer, who had maintained contact with fellow relatives of the deported detainees, told RFA Uyghur they were sent to prison after a secret trial a year after their return. Four individuals were sentenced to life imprisonment, four others were given 20 years, and eight others received 16- or 17-year jail sentences, she said.

Omer said her seriously ill relative serving a 20-year sentence still had to perform labor in prison, while one woman, who was later released, had a miscarriage in detention due to torture that included electric shocks and being left nearly naked in a cold jail cell.

What leverage does China hold over countries like Thailand to enforce its demands?

Although Thailand is a long-standing treaty ally of the United States, like most Southeast Asian nations it has become increasingly reliant on Chinese trade and investment, and has close diplomatic and security ties with Beijing.

The mostly authoritarian governments in the region share policy alignment and political preference with Beijing. Thailand, whose post-pandemic economic performance has lagged behind many of its ASEAN competitors, largely depends for growth on China.

China is the largest source of tourists and has been a top foreign investor in Thailand, while Chinese are the largest foreign purchasers of Thai real estate.

Neighbor states Cambodia and Laos have largely staked their economic and political futures on close official relations with China, receiving major infrastructure investment under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Cambodia hosts a Chinese-funded naval base at Ream that the People’s Liberation Army Navy visits, and has blocked even ASEAN statements on the South China Sea at the behest of Beijing.

Edited by Malcolm Foster.