We don’t know for sure what happened to the forty Uyghurs detained in Thailand for many years before being deported in February 2025 to the country from which they had escaped. We have a pretty good idea though.
At the time, a Beijing rep, Lin Jian, said, “The lawful rights and interests of individuals concerned are fully protected.” Thai officials could not have regarded such assurances, whether made publicly or privately, as reassuring.
We can believe that CCP officials regarded the forty men as having no “lawful rights and interests” that could interfere with China’s brutal treatment of them.
Protests
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms Thailand’s forced return of at least 40 Uyghurs to China, where they lack due process rights and where Uyghurs have faced persecution, forced labor, and torture,” said Secretary of State Rubio at the time.
“This act runs counter to the Thai people’s longstanding tradition of protection for the most vulnerable and is inconsistent with Thailand’s commitment to protect human rights. We urge all governments in countries where Uyghurs seek protection not to forcibly return ethnic Uyghurs to China.”
The director of Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates, Phil Robertson, said that the Thai government had “finally done the unthinkable by forcing at least 40 Uyghurs asylum seekers back to China to face torture in custody, long prison terms, and likely death…. Thai officials involved in this forced return, using blacked-out trucks and a barrage of lying denials, have the blood of these Uyghur men on their hands.”
The development was not without precedent. In July 2015, the government had sent more than 100 Uyghurs back to China.
An unhelpful pardon
Now two other Uyghurs being held in Thailand are at risk. The Thai government has detained them since 2014—the same year that the forty deported to China last year and the hundred deported in 2015 had arrived in Thailand (Bangkok Post, November 1, 2026).
Following a royal pardon [for an escape attempt], authorities moved both from prison to the Immigration Bureau’s Suan Phlu detention centre on Oct 21, where they await deportation. Both have told their legal representatives they do not want to return to China. Since the transfer, their lawyers have not been allowed to see them.
Last Tuesday, only days after the two were moved to the detention centre, the Chinese ambassador to Thailand met the secretary-general of the [Thai] National Security Council, the groups said.
“Our networks are therefore deeply concerned that the two refugees face a real risk of forced return. We are concerned that an upcoming meeting of the NSC may include an agenda item to decide the fate of these Uyghur refugees,” they said in a joint statement.
The NSC is chaired by Thailand’s prime minister.
The younger of the two men was 14 or possibly 16 when the Thai government took him into custody in 2014.
Also see:
Uyghur Monitor’s Közet: “He was 14 when Thailand locked him up. Twelve years later, a pardon may deliver him to China.”
Provides a detailed timeline and account of the 300 Uyghurs who arrived in Thailand in 2014 after escaping the People’s Republic of China. In 2015, 173 were sent to Turkey, 109 were sent to China, and 53 continued to be detained in Thailand.
