Five Uighurs held in Thailand plead for third country resettlement as China seeks arrest

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - Police enter an immigration detention centre in Bangkok on January 22, 2025. Five Uighurs detained in Thailand since 2014 are subject to Chinese arrest warrants, the kingdom’s security chief said November 4, 2026, adding that a court would decide if they would be returned to China. — AFP pic

BANGKOK, Nov 4 — Five Uighurs detained in Thailand since 2014 are subject to Chinese arrest warrants, the kingdom’s security chief said today, adding that a court would decide if they would be returned to China.

Human rights groups have raised concerns about the men — members of the Muslim minority group who activists say are persecuted in China — after two of them were pardoned by Thailand last month.

They were among more than 300 Uighurs held in Thailand in 2014, most of whom have since left — including a group of around 40 sent last year to China, a move that sparked international outrage.

The five were jailed for trying to escape immigration detention in 2020 and under Thai law have to serve their sentences before deportation.

Two of them were pardoned last month and are in immigration detention awaiting their fate.

“These five have arrest warrants in China and they have no refugee status,” Chaipruak Doungprapat, secretary-general of Thailand’s National Security Council, told reporters today.

He said that if China requests their extradition, Thailand’s foreign ministry would make an assessment and a court would then decide.

“If the court rules that they are guilty, they will be handed over under the extradition treaty,” Chaipruak said.

“If they win, it depends on whether any (other) country is willing to take them.”

Asked today about the fate of the five men, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning did not provide details.

“China and Thailand’s cooperation in combating cross-border criminal activities such as illegal immigration is in line with the two countries’ laws, international law and international practice,” she said.

‘Grave risks’ 

Thailand is not a party to the UN Refugee Convention, but is bound by the international legal principle of non-refoulement, which bars countries from sending people back to places where their lives or freedom are in danger.

Human Rights Watch warned today that the Uighurs faced “grave risks of torture and other serious abuses” in China, and should be allowed to travel to a safe third country.

Beijing has been accused of detaining more than a million Uighurs and other Muslims since 2017, part of a campaign that the United Nations previously said could constitute crimes against humanity.

China vehemently denies these allegations, saying its policies have boosted economic development and rooted out extremism in the Xinjiang region, where most Uighurs are from.

In letters written by the two pardoned men and shared with AFP by Peace Rights Foundation, which provides them legal representation, they said they do not want to return to China.

“If we go back to China, we and our parents must receive death sentence(s),” one letter says.

“The Uighur people have no human rights and are treated lower than animals.”

It adds: “China is slandering us. We aren’t terrorist(s).”

‘Rather die’ 

Thailand’s foreign ministry did not immediately reply to emailed questions from AFP.

But a ministry official told a parliament committee on September 16 that both China and a Western country had requested five detained Uighurs be sent to them, according to parliamentary minutes.

Kannavee Suebsang, chairman of Peace Rights Foundation, said defence lawyers have not been given access to the two pardoned men since October 21 when they were moved to immigration custody.

The pair told a Thai human rights commissioner on Wednesday that they want to be resettled in a third country, Kannavee told AFP.

“They refuse to return to China and would rather die first.” — AFP