Fleeing Uygurs caught using Rohingya trafficking networks are stuck in limbo

Police Major General Thatchai Pitaneelaboot says he was stunned when he discovered about 220 Uygurs hiding in a palm-oil plantation in Thailand's southern Songkhla province in March.

The immigration official had been tipped off that there were some Muslim illegal migrants hiding in a camp nearby. With a caseload centring on the heads of two human-trafficking networks specialising in moving Rohingya through southern Thailand, Thatchai had expected the tip-off to lead him to members of the persecuted group fleeing neighbouring Myanmar.

"We have had the odd Uygur detainee here and there. I have seen them in Bangkok. But never down south. And never in such large numbers - that was really a lot of people to find."

They had been in the camp for weeks. Local Muslim women had been taking them food as they waited to make the final leg of their journey to Malaysia, the border of which lies just shy of 95km away. More than half of the group were women; two were heavily pregnant and eventually gave birth in Thatchai's immigration detention centre. Many of the children were sick and had rashes; all looked tired and undernourished. They told Thatchai they were Turkish and wanted to go back to Turkey. They refused to say anything more.

So, what makes Thatchai so sure they were Uygurs?

"The Uygurs we have met before are always like that. They are very quiet, not like the Rohingya. They just pray and want to stay together with their children. They neve

r fight," says Thatchai, who seems frustrated by their silence: "They won't speak. It makes things very difficult."

One of the men in the group, when asked to meet with a reporter visiting the detainees, complained of a headache so severe it rendered him unable to talk.