Following the deportation of 45 Uyghurs to China, the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok has issued a warning to American citizens about the potential for “violent retaliatory attacks.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio has strongly condemned the deportation.
Thai police and security officials have stated that they received assurances the Uyghurs, who had been detained for over a decade, would not be penalized or harmed. At a press conference on Thursday, officials said the men voluntarily returned after being shown a translated Chinese agreement requesting their repatriation and guaranteeing they would be allowed to live normally.
The U.S. Embassy cautioned on Friday that “similar deportations have prompted violent retaliatory attacks in the past.” They cited the 2015 deportation of Uyghurs from Thailand, which was followed by improvised explosive devices detonating at the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, resulting in 20 deaths and 125 injuries, as the shrine is popular with Chinese tourists.
The Embassy is advising Americans in Thailand to “exercise increased caution and vigilance, especially in crowded locations frequented by tourists due to the potential for increased collateral risk.”
Rubio condemned the deportation on Thursday, calling it a “forced return of at least 40 Uyghurs to China, where they lack due process rights and where Uyghurs have faced persecution, forced labor, and torture.”
Rubio stated, “As Thailand’s longstanding ally, we are alarmed by this action, which risks running afoul of its international obligations under the U.N. Convention Against Torture and the International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.” He added, “This act runs counter to the Thai people’s longstanding tradition of protection for the most vulnerable and is inconsistent with Thailand’s commitment to protect human rights.”
He urged all governments in countries where Uyghurs seek protection not to forcibly return ethnic Uyghurs to China.
Rubio also called on Chinese authorities to provide full access to verify the well-being of the returned Uyghurs on a regular basis, stating, “The Thai Government must insist and fully verify continuously that Chinese authorities protect the Uyghurs’ human rights.”
Thai lawmakers, activists, and lawyers had raised concerns on Wednesday about the imminent deportation. According to the Associated Press, trucks with covered windows left Bangkok’s Immigration Detention Center after midnight, where the men had been held.
The news agency reported that the trucks appeared to transport the men to Bangkok’s Don Mueang airport, where a China Southern Airlines plane was waiting to fly them to Xinjiang province, the heartland of China’s Uyghur population.
In a Facebook statement on Thursday, the Chinese Embassy acknowledged the deportation of 40 Chinese nationals who it said had illegally entered Thailand to Xinjiang via a chartered flight.
The embassy stated the men had been detained in Thailand for over a decade due to “complicated international factors.”
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