Thai PM says human rights principles must be followed, amid concern over fate of Uyghurs
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra did not confirm an extradition had taken place when asked about the status of the 48 Uyghurs and said she had yet to discuss the issue with officials
Thailand's premier said on Thursday international standards and human rights principles must be followed, responding to activists' concerns that 48 Uyghurs held in the country for more than a decade had been secretly deported to China.
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra did not confirm an extradition had taken place when asked about the status of the 48 Uyghurs and said she had yet to discuss the issue with officials.
"This sort of issue, for any country, one has to follow the law, international process and human rights," Paetongtarn told reporters, without elaborating.
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United Nations human rights experts last month urged Thailand not to send the 48 Uyghurs back to China, warning they were at risk of torture, ill-treatment and "irreparable harm" if returned.
Early on Thursday, several trucks with windows covered in black tape were seen leaving the Bangkok immigration centre where the 48 Uyghurs have been held, according to images published with reports by several local media outlets.
A few hours later, at 4.48 am (2148 Wednesday), an unscheduled China Southern Airlines flight took off from Bangkok's Don Mueang airport and landed in Kashgar in China's Xinjiang region about six hours later, according to tracker Flightradar24.
Rights groups accuse Beijing of widespread abuses of Uyghurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority that numbers around 10 million in the western region of Xinjiang. Beijing denies any abuses.
Thailand's immigration police, China's foreign ministry and its embassy in Bangkok did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday.
The Cross Cultural Foundation, a Thai human rights group, said it would file a petition with a court on Thursday to request an immediate inquiry that it said could compel officials to testify on the status of the Uyghurs and present the detainees.
SECURITY RISK
The 48 detainees are part of a group of 300 Uyghurs who fled China and were arrested in Thailand in 2014. Some of them were sent back to China and others to Turkey, with the rest remaining in Thai custody.
Thailand's government has recently said there was no immediate plan to deport them, although it has not ruled out their return.
The political leadership wants to deport the Uyghurs to China, despite warnings from its agencies that it posed a security risk and would breach human rights principles, according to a Thai security official, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Some diplomats and security analysts believe Thailand's deportation of 100 Uyghurs to China in July 2015 led to the bombing a month later of a busy Bangkok shrine that killed 20 people, in the worst attack of its kind on Thai soil.
Thailand was widely condemned for the deportation of the 100 Uyghurs, with international concerns they could be tortured. Their fate is unknown.
Thai authorities at the time concluded that attack was linked to its crackdown on a human trafficking ring, without specifically linking the group to the Uyghurs.
Two ethnic Uyghur men were arrested, and charged with murder and illegal possession of explosives and their trial, which has been delayed repeatedly, is ongoing.
