• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • ABOUT CHINA
    • NEWS
    • TESTIMONIES
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • GLOSSARY
    • CHINA PERSECUTION MAP
  • FROM THE WORLD
    • NEWS GLOBAL
    • TESTIMONIES GLOBAL
    • OP-EDS GLOBAL
    • FEATURED GLOBAL
  • INTERVIEWS
  • DOCUMENTS AND TRANSLATIONS
    • DOCUMENTS
    • THE TAI JI MEN CASE
    • TRANSLATIONS
    • EVENTS
  • ABOUT
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • TOPICS

Bitter Winter

A magazine on religious liberty and human rights

three friends of winter
Home / China / Testimonies China

Thailand Mistreats Refugees from China

11/07/2022Ruth Ingram |

Pressure is mounting to release Uyghur asylum seekers from horrific conditions in Thailand. Southern Mongolian and Christian refugees from China also face problems.

by Ruth Ingram

Uyghur refugees in Thailand. Courtesy of the World Uyghur Congress.
Uyghur refugees in Thailand. Courtesy of the World Uyghur Congress.

Following a recent exposé in the Bangkok Post concerning the plight of Uyghur refugees held captive in Thai detention centers, Lord David Alton, a UK peer who has visited such a detention facility in Thailand, speaking to Bitter Winter, has denounced the “heartbreaking” incarceration, where inmates are “caged like animals.” He has appealed to the British government to expedite their transfer to Britain, and to the UNHCR to examine their cases as a matter of urgency.

Following their arrival in Thailand in 2014 after a torturous overland route through inner China, Laos, and Cambodia, lasting for many months, a group of 173 were freed and sent on to Turkey in late June 2015, but almost immediately a further 109 were repatriated to an uncertain fate back in the homeland. Hope for a positive outcome on their return faded quickly following Global Times footage of the hooded men being manhandled down an airplane staircase and reports that they were being investigated for terrorism-related crimes. None has been heard from since. From the original total, 59 have been living in an uncertain limbo for the last eight years and their fate is no closer to a denouement.

Some justification for bowing to China and tarring all Uyghurs with Beijing’s “terrorism” narrative, arose from the August 2015 bombing of the Erawan Shrine at Ratchaprasong Intersection, one of Bangkok’s busiest downtown areas. Two Uyghurs were accused of the attack, which killed 20 people and injured 130. Despite their claims of innocence and assertion that confessions were obtained under torture, the hearings have dragged on painfully slowly and their detention continues to the present day. They have been kept incommunicado at the Lak Si temporary prison where their conditions are abject, and they have no contact with the outside world.

The other 59 Uyghurs, some women and children, have been moved from pillar to post over the years. Despite eight Thai human rights organizations pushing for a solution, it seems they are pawns in a diplomatic quagmire between China and the United States; Beijing currently seeming to have the upper hand. More than a dozen Thai rights groups led by the People’s Empowerment Foundation, fearing a precipitated repatriation of the group, handed a petition to the Foreign Affairs Committee of parliament’s lower house on June 15th this year calling for its help to step in and prevent their return. The results of their plea are still pending.

Thai government response to refugees seeking sanctuary has been sketchy over the years and strongly condemned by Human Rights Watch (HRW). According to the group, Thai authorities have “repeatedly violated the international principle against refoulement.” Ignoring an international outcry and protests by the UNHCR and UN Secretary-general, 4,500 Hmong were repatriated to Laos in December 2009, thousands of Burmese fleeing armed conflict were sent back to Burma and 128 Tamils arrested for illegal entry.

A recent case that has largely flown under the radar is that of Southern Mongolian activist Adiyaa, aka Wu Guoxing, who after fleeing Mongolia to Thailand with seven members of his family, and despite obtaining UNHCR refugee status, was detained and forced to meet Chinese embassy officials on October 5, 2022, under the pretext of having broken “Chinese relevant laws.” He was told to sign papers admitting his guilt and agreeing to return to China, which he refused to do.

Adiyaa. Courtesy of Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Centre.
Adiyaa. Courtesy of Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Centre.

Having opened a Mongolian language training center in Hohhot, his participation in protests over CCP plans to erase the Mongolian language resulted in the closure of his facility and harassment of his family. They were forced to leave but all thoughts that they were safe on reaching Thailand were quickly dispelled once they realized that Beijing had them in its sights, and Thailand had no intention of offering the protection they were legally entitled to.

Despite being held in a Thai government detention center, four Chinese State security agents were given free rein to set upon him, and beat him until eventually he gave in and signed the papers the agents had prepared. He and his family members are terrified they might be deported at any moment. UNHCR officials have visited him in captivity, but his sister Turgowaa reported to the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Centre, that he was still detained. “It is all too clear that the Thai Immigration Bureau is ganging up with the Chinese State Security authorities, disregarding the United Nations conventions on refugees and human rights,” she said.

Chinese Christians too, on the run from intolerable persecution and harassment in China, on failing to find hoped for refuge in South Korea, landed in Thailand hoping to receive a welcome. They were disappointed. Sixty members of the Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church after three years on the run arrived in Bangkok in September this year, but were immediately stalked, videoed, and sent threatening messages and calls. Interviewed by AP, Pastor Pan Yongguang said that the persecution was “getting worse.” “Political pressure is rising, and there’s more and more ideological control”, said Pastor Pan Yongguang.

He reported that despite their distance from Beijing, the CCP still considered it a right to pursue them and use their captive relatives back in the homeland as collateral. Chinese diplomats refused to issue a member’s newborn child a passport, rendering the baby stateless, he said.

Following mass riots and killings in the Xinjiang capital in July 2009, provoked by the slaying of two Uyghur factory workers in Shaoguan in inner China, Nur Mohammed, a lone Uyghur fleeing the troubles, made it to Thailand but two years later, the Thai authorities, flouting international law requiring an impartial investigation handed him over to Chinese authorities in 2011. They were accused at the time by Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director of HRW, of abandoning the proud tradition of protecting those fleeing persecution, “to do Beijing’s bidding.”

Despite the violent backlash and clashes in Turkey provoked by the deportation of Uyghurs in 2015, however, Thailand was unrepentant, claiming verification of Uyghur’s nationality as Chinese was enough to justify their actions. Deputy government spokesman, Colonel Weerachon Sukhondhapatipak said that the nationality of the remaining 50 had yet to be determined.

Addressing the latest attempt to raise their case, Phil Robertson, Asia deputy director of HRW, speaking to AFP, pressed for their release immediately, describing their situation as “absolutely shocking.” Anticipating their being held indefinitely “to avoid offending China,” he said, “If there is a hell on earth, Thailand has created it for these Uyghur detainees.”

Thailand PM Prayut Chan-o-cha. Credits.
Thailand PM Prayut Chan-o-cha. Credits.

In 2016, Thailand’s Prime Minister, Gen. Prayut Chan-o-cha (Ret.) attended the Leaders’ Summit on refugees held at the United Nations headquarters in New York. A very different Thai government, lauded for its much vaunted four-decade record of giving humanitarian assistance to tens of thousands of the displaced along its borders, pledged Thailand’s continued commitment to ease the suffering and help build a future for those fleeing for their lives.

That was quite a different package from the one offered to the 59 stranded Uyghurs seeking a way forward today.

The Uyghurs remaining in limbo have complained about unsanitary and crowded conditions in the facilities. Three of them including a three-year-old boy have died, the latest, 27-year-old Bilal, passed away from cancer on August 1, 2018, prompting World Uyghur Congress president Dolkun Isa to say, “one tragic death is too many. If the Thai government doesn’t take any immediate actions to resolve the Uyghur cases, we will likely see more results like this.”

Some in their desperation have gone on hunger strike and others broke out of their facility in June this year, eleven of them making it to Malaysia where they were released to Turkey with Malaysian Prime Minister’s blessing.

Speaking on World Refugee Day in 2019, Omer Kanat, Director of the Uyghur Human Rights Project said, “the Uyghur refugees held in Thailand should be freed. They have been deprived of their liberty for approximately five years and it is time to end the pain of their uncertainty. If these Uyghurs were returned to China, they would be delivered into the hands of their persecutors. Their fear of the Chinese government is obvious.” His message today is the same.

Speaking this week following the AFP report, Dolkun Isa urged action to save his people. He tweeted, “The Thai authorities must end this horrific treatment, and immediately release these refugees.”

Tagged With: Muslim Uyghurs, Refugees, Thailand

bw-profile
Ruth Ingram

Ruth Ingram is a researcher who has written extensively for the Central Asia-Caucasus publication, Institute of War and Peace Reporting, the Guardian Weekly newspaper, The Diplomat, and other publications.

Related articles

  • Protests Against the Urumqi Fire Extend to Amsterdam

    Protests Against the Urumqi Fire Extend to Amsterdam

  • The US-China Balloon Crisis: A Uyghur View

    The US-China Balloon Crisis: A Uyghur View

  • The Urumqi Fire Was State Terror: The European Parliament Got It Right

    The Urumqi Fire Was State Terror: The European Parliament Got It Right

  • Thank You, Friends from Taiwan, You Are Our Special Translators

    Thank You, Friends from Taiwan, You Are Our Special Translators

Keep Reading

  • Xinjiang Governor Erkin Tuniyaz: Slave to Beijing, Tyrant to the Uyghurs
    Xinjiang Governor Erkin Tuniyaz: Slave to Beijing, Tyrant to the Uyghurs

    The politician who had to cancel his European trip used to be nicknamed “the Slave” (of the CCP) but is now called “Ertis” (Actor) Tuniyaz.

  • Abliz Abdulhek, Uyghur Author of “Independence or Death,” Has Passed Away
    Abliz Abdulhek, Uyghur Author of “Independence or Death,” Has Passed Away

    Regarded as a hard-line independence activist, Abliz Abdulhek was respected by many as a strong voice against oppression and genocide.

  • Celebrating Uyghur National Day at Amsterdam’s Dam Square
    Celebrating Uyghur National Day at Amsterdam’s Dam Square

    This time, the lonely protester was joined by more than 100 fellow activists.

  • Innocents Abroad: The World Muslim Communities Council Hails Xinjiang as a Religious Liberty Paradise
    Innocents Abroad: The World Muslim Communities Council Hails Xinjiang as a Religious Liberty Paradise

    TWMCC is just another fake NGO, made up of bureaucrats from Arab governments who need to humor China for their own purposes.

Primary Sidebar

Support Bitter Winter

Learn More

Follow us

Newsletter

Most Read

  • Blaming the Victims: The Hamburg Shooting and the Jehovah’s Witnesses by Massimo Introvigne
  • The Donnie Yen Fiasco: A Uyghur View by Rebiya Kadeer
  • More Uyghur Criticism of Donnie Yen: Wasn’t He More Guilty than Will Smith? by Kok Bayraq
  • The “Buddhist and Taoist Clergy Database,” Another CCP Imposture by He Yuyan
  • The Suicide of the Pink-Haired Girl: How the CCP Exploited a Tragedy by Zhou Kexin
  • Second-Generation Unification Church Believers Discriminated in Japan. 3. Media Slander Leads to Discrimination by Masumi Fukuda
  • Russia: Pastor Moskvitin Sentenced to 1.5 Years in Penal Colony for “Brainwashing” by Massimo Introvigne

CHINA PERSECUTION MAP -SEARCH NEWS BY REGION

clickable geographical map of china, with regions

Footer

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief

MASSIMO INTROVIGNE

Director-in-Charge

MARCO RESPINTI

ADDRESS

CESNUR

Via Confienza 19,

10121 Turin, Italy,

Phone: 39-011-541950

E-MAIL

We welcome submission of unpublished contributions, news, and photographs. Each submission implies the authorization for us to edit and publish texts and photographs. We reserve the right to decide which submissions are suitable for publication. Please, write to INFO@BITTERWINTER.ORG Thank you.

Newsletter

LINKS

orlir-logo hrwf-logo cesnur-logo

Copyright © 2023 · Bitter Winter · PRIVACY POLICY· COOKIE POLICY