Fearing deportation, Uyghurs detained in Thailand have begun a hunger strike

Dozens of Uighur men who fled persecution in their native China to find themselves detained in Thailand have entered the second week of a hunger strike in Bangkok. Their fast is a last-ditch attempt to pressure the Thai government to stop what the detainees fear is their imminent deportation to China, where they face the risk of torture and imprisonment.

The men, who have been in Thai detention centers for more than a decade, began their hunger strike on January 10, two days after they were given “voluntary return” forms to sign, according to accounts from two detainees.

Everyone refused to sign the forms, but were then asked to take pictures. These instructions sparked a state of panic among the detainees because the same series of events in 2015 preceded the events in Thailand. Sudden deportation 109 other Uyghurs to China.

Thai authorities said there were no plans to return them, and denied that a hunger strike was taking place.

One of the detainees secretly communicated with a reporter and activist who shared his audio messages with the New York Times. One of his family members relayed the story of the second detainee. Four other people familiar with the matter also confirmed these details. Detainees have virtually no access to anyone except monthly doctor visits.

The Uyghurs are Turkic-speaking Muslims, many of whom live in China’s far western Xinjiang region. Determined to eliminate perceived threats of ethnic separatism, Chinese authorities have placed the region under control Tight surveillance Starting in 2014. Later, they did Up to a million Uyghurs and others have been detained In concentration camps and prisons, it escalated Birth control measures for Muslim women And Muslim status Children in boarding schools.

the Persecution Which prompted thousands of Uyghurs to flee. Those detained in Thailand were part of a wave of more than 300 people who left China in 2014 using the Southeast Asian country as a transit point in an attempt to reach Turkey, which is home to a large Uighur community.

On Friday night, the men were still refusing food and drinking only small amounts of water, according to an audio message from one of the detainees sent to Arslan Hidayat, a Uyghur rights activist based in Washington, who shared the message with The Guardian. times. The exact number of men on hunger strike remains unclear.

Earlier on Friday, the detainee said he had “good authority” that the Thais would hand over the Uyghurs to China by Monday.

In a separate letter dated January 13, the detainee said: “We are desperately seeking help from those living in the free world. You all know what will happen to us if we are sent back to China.

Separately, the brother of another detainee told a reporter that he sent a text message with him on Friday. “It has been seven days since we started a hunger strike. “But they don’t care and they don’t respond to us,” the detainee wrote in the text message, seen by The Times. “This morning, we ask to meet the UN but they won’t let us.”

Both the detainees and the second brother, like others mentioned in this article, requested that their identities not be revealed for fear of reprisal.

Thai immigration authorities have repeatedly Refuse to allow The UN refugee agency has access to the men, unlike other groups such as Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, according to Briony Lau, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

The hunger strike increased human rights activists’ concerns about the health of detainees. Many of them are already malnourished, suffer from chronic diseases such as heart and lung diseases, and have little access to health care. Five Uyghurs have died in detention, including two children.

This month, a former Cambodian opposition politician Shooting in Bangkok in broad daylight, making refugees and other dissidents who fled to Thailand fear for their safety.

Thai Defense Minister Phumtam Wichachai said on Friday that the Uighur issue was discussed that day at a meeting of the country’s National Security Council. He said they talked about how to “strictly abide by the laws and do things without creating problems for our country and other countries.”

When asked by a journalist whether Uyghurs would be deported on Monday, Mr Phumtham, who is also Thailand’s deputy prime minister, said: “I just heard this from you.”

Lieutenant-General Thanit Thaiwacharamas, acting deputy commander of the Immigration Bureau, denied that the Uyghurs were on hunger strike.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it was “not aware” of reports that Uyghurs could be returned to China. She added that her basic position was to “launch a tough crackdown on any form of illegal immigration.”

The plight of the detainees has raised concerns in the United States and in the human rights community. On Wednesday, Marco Rubio, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick for secretary of state, said he would pressure Thailand not to repatriate Uyghurs. He added at a Senate hearing that the situation was “another opportunity for us to remind the world” of the persecution faced by the Uyghurs.

Angkana Nilapaijit, a member of the Thai Senate, said she had raised the issue of the hunger strike with the Thai National Security Council. She said she is pressing Thai police to allow her to interview Uyghurs, and plans to hold a hearing in parliament on their status at the end of the month.

She recalled how in 2015, as head of Thailand’s National Human Rights Commission, she was surprised by the previous deportation of Uyghurs. The United Nations refugee agency described the move as a “flagrant violation of international law.”

At the time, protesters in Türkiye ransacked the Thai consulate in Istanbul, and police in the capital, Ankara, used pepper spray to repel Uyghurs who tried to breach a barricade outside the Chinese embassy.

Thailand’s then Prime Minister, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, said China had guaranteed the safety of the Uyghurs and promised them “access to fair justice.” But the Chinese State Broadcasting Corporation later broadcast pictures of the detainees Hoods on their heads While they were boarding a plane heading to China.

Omer Kanat, executive director of the Uyghur Human Rights Project, a nongovernmental group, said his organization later learned that a few deportees had received long prison sentences, but the fate of most was unknown. “They disappeared.”

Muktita Suhartono Contributing reporting from Bangkok, and Vivian Wang From Beijing.