Forgotten Uygurs locked up in Thailand face ‘hell on earth’ and fear for future
- A group of Uygurs, arrested in 2013-2014, have been shuffled around Thai immigration centres for eight years while authorities ponder their fate
- They fear deportation to China’s ‘vocational training centres’ where UN found torture, forced labour and large-scale arbitrary detention
Almost a decade after fleeing China, more than 50 Uygurs are languishing in Thai detention facilities, living in constant fear of being sent back.
China has been accused of grave human rights abuses in Xinjiang against the Uygurs dating back to at least the 1990s, with the United States branding Beijing’s treatment of the mostly Muslim minority a “genocide”.
A damning UN report released in August detailed violations including torture and forced labour and “large-scale” arbitrary detention in what Beijing calls vocational training centres.
Many Uygurs have fled China over the years, with some travelling through Myanmar to Thailand, but dozens have ended up stuck in detention there – the apparent victims of what observers say is the kingdom’s desire to avoid angering either Beijing or Washington.
The group of Uygurs, arrested in 2013 and 2014, are currently being held in immigration centres around Thailand while authorities ponder their fate.
Neither their precise location nor their exact number is clear – a group of Thai rights organisations says there are 52, but a senator working on the case says 59.