The Government of Thailand must immediately halt the possible transfer of 48 Uyghurs to the People’s Republic of China, UN experts* said today, warning that the group was at real risk of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment if they are returned.
“The treatment of the Uyghur minority in China is well-documented,” the experts said. “We are concerned they are at risk of suffering irreparable harm, in violation of the international prohibition on refoulement to torture.”
“The prohibition on refoulement prohibits the return or transfer in any manner whatsoever to a country where there is real risk of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” they recalled.
The experts urged Thailand to provide adequate and comprehensive medical care to the group of Uyghurs without delay.
The 48 Uyghurs are said to be part of a larger group of approximately 350 persons who were arrested in Thailand in 2014, after irregularly crossing the Thai border to seek protection in Thailand. It is alleged that they have been held in de facto incommunicado detention for over a decade, with no access to lawyers, family members, representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) or the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Thai authorities have denied any immediate plan to send 48 Uyghur refugees back to China after UN experts urged a stop. Rights groups accuse Beijing of widespread abuses of Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim minority in China.
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Thailand denies planning Uyghur return in face of UN pleas