The men deported today are among 300 Uyghurs who were apprehended by the Thai authorities in 2014

‘The Thai government should have protected these men, but instead it has wilfully exposed them to these grave risks’ – Sarah Brooks

Responding to reports that a group of about 40 Uyghurs detained in Thailand since 2014 were today deported to China, Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s China Director, said:

“The forcible return of these men, or indeed any Uyghurs, to China would place them at risk of serious human rights violations. We urge the government of Thailand to clarify their status.

“Their ordeal is already chilling: they fled repression in China, only to find themselves arbitrarily detained in Thailand for more than a decade. The fact that they now may be forcibly returned to a country where Uyghur and other non-Han ethnic groups in Xinjiang have faced torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance is unimaginably cruel.

“The Thai government should have protected these men, but instead it has wilfully exposed them to these grave risks. In doing so it has ignored pleas from Amnesty International and United Nations (UN) experts who urged it not to violate the internationally and domestically recognised principle of non-refoulement. And this just as Thailand has been elected to the UN Human Rights Council.

“We now call on the governments of Thailand and China to disclose the whereabouts of these individuals, and – if they continue to be in custody – to ensure that the full spectrum of their rights is respected, including their right to be free from torture and other forms of ill-treatment.

“Many of these men are in extremely poor health after enduring years in detention. They must have access to appropriate and adequate medical care. We call for an end to their ordeal and urge authorities to uphold their right to freedom of movement. It is past time that they are allowed to safely rejoin their families.”

Serious human rights violations

The men deported today are among about 300 Uyghurs who were apprehended by the Thai authorities on 13 March 2014 after they had fled persecution and discrimination in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. A total of 109 people from the group were deported to China in July 2015. 

Amnesty has documented massive and systematic abuses by the Chinese government against Uyghurs in Xinjiang - including in internment camps, where over a million people have been arbitrarily detained.

In a 2021 report, Amnesty found that the Chinese government has committed at least the crimes against humanity of imprisonment, torture and persecution against Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups in Xinjiang.

In a letter to the Thai government in January 2025, a group of UN experts said 23 of 48 men remaining in detention were reportedly suffering from serious health conditions including “diabetes, kidney dysfunction, paralysis of the lower body, skin diseases, gastrointestinal illnesses and heart and lung conditions”.

Thailand is bound by the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits the transfer of persons to any country or jurisdiction where they would face a real risk of serious human rights violations.