Thailand had offers to take Uyghurs but deported them to China anyway: MP

UPDATED at 12:31 p.m. ET on 2025-0305

Thailand had received offers from three countries, including the United States, to accept 48 detained Uyghurs for resettlement but it instead deported most of them to China last week, at Beijing’s request, a Thai opposition member of parliament said on Wednesday.

Thailand repatriated 40 of the Uyghurs to China on Feb. 27, ignoring warnings from the U.S., the U.N. and human rights groups that they risked torture when they were returned to the northeastern region of Xinjiang, which they fled more than 10 years ago. Five other Uyghurs are in a Thai prison and the whereabouts of three have not been disclosed.

Thailand said it agreed to what it said was the voluntary repatriation of the 40 men after a formal request from Beijing, and after getting Chinese assurances they would be safe, and because it had received no offers from other countries to resettle them.

But opposition lawmaker Kannavee Suebsang told BenarNews that Thailand had received offers from three countries to take the men.

“We’re revealing this because the government has consistently claimed that no country was willing or that they contacted countries but no one would accept the Uyghurs,” Kannavee said.

“However, the information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is clear on this matter,” he said, referring to a meeting with ministry officials on July 10, 2024, on the plight of the detained Uyghurs during which Kannavee cited the officials as saying “there were three countries … that had expressed their readiness to accept Uyghurs for resettlement.”

He identified the three countries as the U.S., Sweden and Australia.

The Thai foreign ministry spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department confirmed to Radio Free Asia (RFA), a news organization affiliated with BenarNews, that an offer to resettle the Uyghurs in America had been made in the past.

“We have worked with Thailand for years to avoid this situation, including by consistently and repeatedly offering to resettle the Uyghurs in other countries, including, at one point, the United States,” the spokesperson said. 

BenarNews was also not able to contact Swedish or Australian spokespeople.

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Kannavee said Thailand had declined the offers from those countries as China had requested that the men be sent there.

“China also wanted the Thai government to send them back,” he said.

“China asked Thailand not to send Uyghurs to any country and wanted Thailand to consider returning them to China.”

‘Play with words’

During a parliamentary committee meeting in July last year, the Thai foreign ministry said that the U.S., Sweden, and Australia had expressed their willingness to accept Uyghurs for resettlement, Kannavee said.

Uyghurs in China’s vast Xinjiang region have been subjected to widespread human rights abuses, including detention in massive concentration camps. Beijing denies that. 

Sunai Phasuk, senior Thailand researcher at Human Rights Watch, told BenarNews that he too knew that other countries had offered to take the Uyghurs. He declined to identify the countries, citing diplomatic sensitivities.

“I can confirm that several countries have expressed their willingness to accept them,” he said.

“But there was no opportunity to make these offers a reality because Thailand did not follow up on the issue.”

Sunai said the Thai government had “tried to play with words to suggest that sending Uyghurs to China was the only option because nobody would accept them for resettlement.”

He added he suspected that the government had maintained the position that “only official expressions of interest through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs channels would be considered official intent.”

China dismissed fears for the safety of the men last week saying they would be re-united with their families and resettled.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who had called on Thailand at his confirmation hearing in January not to send the men to China, said Thailand’s deportation of them violated international agreements and ran counter to the kingdom’s own commitment to protect human rights.

Thailand also faced a barrage of criticism from the U.N. and human rights groups. U.N. experts said on Jan. 21 the Uyghurs in Thailand would likely face torture if forced back to China and they urged Bangkok not to deport them.

Thailand has been a staunch U.S. ally for decades and also has strong ties with Beijing, the region’s dominant economic player. China is among the top trading partners and foreign investors in Thailand, and its leading source of foreign tourist arrivals.

Alex Willemyns for RFA contributed to this report from Washington.