Canada and the United States have proposed to reinstall 48 ethnic Uighurs held in Thailand in the last decade, sources have told Reuters, but Bangkok has not taken up any fear of upset China, where they were secretly expelled last week.
Thailand defended the expulsion, which came despite the calls of the human rights experts of the United Nations, claiming that it had acted in accordance with the laws and obligations of human rights.
Human rights groups accuse China of generalized abuses of Uighurs, an ethnic mainly Muslim minority of at least 10 million in its northwest region of Xinjiang. Beijing denies any abuse.
Thai vice-Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said on Monday that no country had made a concrete offer to reinstall the 48 Uighurs.
“We have waited for more than 10 years and I talked about many major countries, but no one told me for sure,” he told journalists.
Phumtham was outside the government of 2006 in mid-2013.
The United States has proposed to reinstall the 48 Uighurs, said an official of the US State Department.
“The United States has worked with Thailand for years to avoid this situation, in particular by proposing in a coherent and repeated manner to reinstall Uighurs in other countries, including, at one point, the United States,” said the US official, asking not to be appointed.
Canada has also offered asylum for hemours detained, four sources said, including diplomats and people with direct knowledge.
Two of these sources said that another offer came from Australia.
Canada has sentenced China after the latter imposed sanctions on two Canadian Human Rights organizations, the Canada Tibet Committee (CTC) and the Uighur Rights Defense Project. The measures, which entered into force on Saturday, include freezing and prohibitions of assets. Sherap Thechin, executive director of the CTC, says that he considers China’s sanctions as recognition of the work of his organization.
These proposals, which, according to sources, were not taken by Thailand to fear fallout with China, have not been reported before.
All sources have refused to be appointed due to the sensitivity of the issue.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand did not immediately respond to requests for comments.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in response to a question of reuters that repatriation had been carried out in accordance with Chinese, Thai and international law.
“Rapatrians were Chinese nationals who are illegal migrants,” he said. “The legitimate rights of the persons concerned are fully protected.”
A spokesperson for the Canadian Immigration Ministry said they would not comment on individual cases.
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade referred to a Declaration of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Penny WongWho declared on Friday that the country “does not agree” with the decision of Thailand.
The China Embassy in Bangkok said in a statement on Friday that 40 Chinese illegal migrants, who had not committed any serious crime, had returned home to find their families after more than 10 years of separation.
In addition to the 40 Uighurs expelled last week, five are currently in a Thai prison due to an ongoing criminal case, local officials said. Reuters could not immediately confirm the fate of the other three people.
‘Didn’t want to upset China’: the former Thai ambassador to Canada
Pisan Manawapat, Thai ambassador to Canada and the United States between 2013 and 2017 and a senator before his retirement in 2024, said that at least three countries had approached Thailand with proposals to reinstall Uighurs, but refused to appoint them.
“We did not want to upset China,” Pisan told Reuters, without providing more details. “So we did not make the decision at the political level to pass with that.”
China is the largest trading partner in Thailand and the two countries have close commercial links.
Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham said Thailand made the decision to deport the group to China last week after Beijing insurance that Thai officials made it possible to monitor the well-being of Uighurs in the country after their return.
The United Nations Human Rights experts said that the group would risk torture, ill -treatment and “irreparable damage” if they had returned to China, and their expulsion aroused a widespread conviction.
Following the expulsion, the UN refugee agency declared in a statement that it had been refused several times access to the group by the Thai authorities.
A source said that the united UYGOURS agency’s lack of access meant that they could not be treated as asylum seekers, blocking their potential resettlement and leaving them trapped in detention.
