🇹🇭 Thailand's Uyghur deportation shocks

Hello friends!

I am a little unwell this week (too much fun in Bangkok karaoke bars coming back to haunt me) so will hold off the premium read until next week. 

But this one on the deportation of more than 40 Uyghurs from Thailand after a decade of immigration detention is one we need to look at asap. I’m interested in seeing far more in the coming days of how and why this happened and what it tells us, but for now here’s what we need to know. 

See you Monday!

Erin Cook

🇹🇭 A change of heart in Thailand’s Uyghur policy

Devastating news from Thailand, where at least 40 Uyghurs have been deported to China. It comes about a month after the alarm was first raised and deportations appeared imminent. It’s the first deportation of Uyghurs since 2015 and was done under supreme secrecy, with immigration vehicles covered in black tape to obscure logos and accompanied by police. 

The group is believed to have been flown from Bangkok, where they’ve spent a decade in immigration detention, to China’s Xinjiang region, the BBC reports. It notes that Flightradar24 ‘showed an unscheduled China Southern Airlines flight leaving Bangkok, eventually arriving in Xinjiang.’ It still remains unclear how many people have been deported.  The Thai government told media it had attempted to resettle the Ugyhurs in a third country, but none had come forward, essentially forcing their hand. (As I draft this, Channel News Asia’s 

Saksith Saiyasombut is reporting claims this is untrue.

The Thai government is standing its ground. Sort of. 

“It was done in accordance with Thai law and international principles. There are no problems. They will be looked after well because they are their people. [They] are undergoing health checks. After that, they will be sent home. Their relatives have received them,” Defence Minister Phumtham Wechayachai told Reuters. 

In Parliament on Thursday, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra wouldn’t be moved into commenting but noted any deportation must adhere to ‘legal principles, international protocols, and human rights standards,’ as reported by the Nation. 

Many outlets have noted this all comes after a very successful trip to Beijing led by Paetongtarn herself; what role that may have played remains unknown. But it’s near exactly what World Uyghur Congress executive chair Rushan Abbas told Benar earlier in the month: “The CCP has a pattern of pressuring foreign governments, and bending international law for its own agenda.” 

The same Benar piece quotes Phumtham denying any deportation was on the cards. “It is important to abide by international laws, human rights basis and non-refoulement principle. These remain Thai government principles. Don’t you worry,” he’d said then. 

Chinese media reported that “illegal immigrants” had been repatriated, with the Guardian noting many Chinese users on social media appeared to assume the group were connected with the scam centres. 

Why would Thailand give it all up for China on this after a decade? We’ll leave it to bigger brains to think this over in the coming weeks. China’s interest in eradicating the scam centres and transnational crime is immense, but so is Thailand’s and Bangkok has way less firepower there. Maybe the Uyghurs are just dehumanised leverage in that and Thailand gave it up way too easily. 

I am a great ‘great power competition’ hater, but it is painfully relevant here. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is very unhappy: “We condemn in the strongest possible terms Thailand's forced return of at least 40 Uyghurs to China, where they lack due process rights and where Uyghurs have faced persecution, forced labour, and torture,” he said in a statement issued Thursday. 

“We urge all governments in countries where Uyghurs seek protection not to forcibly return ethnic Uyghurs to China,” he added, as per Reuters. 

Rubio has long been an advocate of Uyghurs and had used his confirmation hearing last month to confirm he would pressure Thailand to abandon even the thought of deportation. Which leaves a very interesting question: Is Rubio so busy with his own country’s mess that he and his State Department dropped the ball, or is stock in the US, a long time friend (“friend”) of Thailand, so low at the moment that ignoring Rubio in favour of Beijing a better deal? 

None of that matters for those deported. “It is deeply regrettable that they have been forcibly returned. It is now important for the Chinese authorities to disclose their whereabouts, and to ensure that they are treated in accordance with international human rights standards,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said yesterday, amid fears for their safety.