EXPLAINED: Thailand’s repatriation of 40 Uyghur refugees to China

Thailand’s decision to deport 40 Uyghurs back to China after languishing in a Bangkok detention center for over a decade raises concerns about their fate – and questions about what they were doing there in the first place.

What is known about the Uyghurs sent back to China?

The men originally came from the Xinjiang region of northwestern China where 12 million Uyghurs live under Beijing’s harsh rule. Many have been subjected to human rights abuses and detained in concentration camps that Beijing says are vocational training centers.

In 2014, the 40 men were part of a larger group of Uyghurs who tried to escape Xinjiang through Thailand, but were caught. Ever since, they have been held at the Immigration Detention Center in Bangkok, a prison-like facility.

After over 10 years, they were taken in trucks on Thursday to Don Mueang International Airport to be deported to Xinjiang.

Who are the Uyghurs and what is Xinjiang?

The Uyghurs (WEE-gurs) are a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority from the northwestern region of China known as Xinjiang (“New Frontier”) in Chinese.

The Uyghurs refer to their region as East Turkestan – a name that reflects shared linguistic and cultural roots with other central Asian people along the historic Silk Road, including Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and Uzbeks.

With a history that stretches back two millennia to nomadic tribes from the Altai region, the Uyghurs came under Mongol rule for 500 years until 1760, when the Qing Dynasty conquered the region.

In modern times, Uyghurs founded two short-lived independent republics called East Turkestan that lasted from 1933-34 and 1944-49 when China invaded the region and annexed it.

Why are Uyghurs trying to escape from China?

Uyghur Muslims chafe under what they view as Chinese colonialism in their ancient homeland and resent curbs on their religion and culture under China’s drive to assimilate ethnic minorities.

While tensions have simmered for decades, a major turning point in the Uyghurs’ relations with the Communist government in Beijing was deadly unrest in July 2009 in Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi.

A Uyghur protest against racism and mistreatment spiraled into three days of communal violence between Uyghurs and Han Chinese that left at least 200 people dead and 1,700 injured.

Beijing responded with severe and escalating repression, including mass surveillance, a “strike hard” crackdown since 2014 – the year the 40 deported Uyghurs were arrested in Thailand.

The campaign featured arrests, separation of children from their parents and destruction of mosques and other key elements of Uyghurs’ distinct cultural and religious identity.

In 2017, Chinese authorities began detaining Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims en masse in what Beijing called “reeducation” camps and prisons set up to eradicate religious extremism. Millions underwent political indoctrination and some were subjected to forced labor, torture, rape and the sterilization of women.

Many Western nations condemned well-documented acts of repression under the crackdown as genocide or crimes against humanity. Some countries imposed sanctions to block the import of products made in Xinjiang with forced labor.

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What is the likely fate of the repatriated Uyghurs?

The United States, United Nations and human rights group fear that the men will be tortured and subjected to forced labor as punishment for attempting to flee.

Bangkok officials said they agreed to the deportation only after receiving assurances from Beijing that the men would be unharmed. But what little is known about previous batches of Uyghurs forcibly repatriated to China appears to justify fears expressed by critics of Thursday’s rendition.

In December 2009, Cambodia deported 20 Uyghur asylum-seekers back to China. Last December, in the first word about them in 15 years, a relative of one of the detainees in Turkey revealed to Radio Free Asia, a news service affiliated with BenarNews, the fate of some of the 20.

Ayshemgul Omer, who had maintained contact with fellow relatives of the deported detainees, told RFA Uyghur they were sent to prison after a secret trial a year after their return. Four individuals were sentenced to life in prison, four others were given 20 years and eight others received 16- or 17-year jail sentences, she said.

Omer said her seriously ill relative serving a 20-year sentence had to perform labor in prison, while one woman, who was later released, had a miscarriage in detention because of torture that included electric shocks and being left nearly naked in a cold jail cell.

What leverage does China hold over countries including Thailand?

Although Thailand is a long-standing treaty ally of the United States, like most Southeast Asian nations it has become increasingly reliant on Chinese trade and investment, and has close diplomatic and security ties with Beijing.

The mostly authoritarian governments in the region share many of Beijing’s policy and political preferences. Thailand, whose post-pandemic economic performance has lagged behind many of its ASEAN competitors, largely depends for growth on China.

China is the largest source of tourists and has been a top foreign investor in Thailand, while Chinese are the largest foreign purchasers of Thai real estate.

Neighbor states Cambodia and Laos have largely staked their economic and political futures on close official relations with China, receiving major infrastructure investment under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Cambodia hosts a Chinese-funded naval base at Ream that the People’s Liberation Army Navy visits, and has gone as far as blocking ASEAN statements on the contested South China Sea at the behest of Beijing.