China has warrants out for 5 Uyghurs, Thailand says

Security chief says cases of remaining detainees differ from those of Uyghurs deported earlier

Five Uyghurs detained in Thailand since 2014 are subject to Chinese arrest warrants, the kingdom’s security chief said on Wednesday, adding that a court would decide if they would be returned to China.

Human rights groups have raised concerns about the men — members of the Muslim minority group who activists say are persecuted in China — after two of them were pardoned by Thailand last month.

They are among more than 300 Uyghurs who fled China and were held in Thailand in 2014. A group of 170, mainly women and children, were sent to Turkey in 2015. Others, almost all men, were sent to China in 2015 and 2025 despite widespread international criticism.

The five reportedly sought by China were jailed for trying to escape immigration detention in Thailand in 2020. Of that group, the two who were pardoned remain in custody awaiting deportation, a rights campaigner and an official have confirmed.

Under Thai law, imprisoned foreign nationals can only be deported once their sentences are complete.

“These five have arrest warrants in China and they have no refugee status,” Gen Chaipruak Doungprapat, secretary-general of the National Security Council, told reporters on Wednesday.

He said that if China requests their extradition, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would make an assessment and a court would then decide.

“If the court rules that they are guilty, they will be handed over under the extradition treaty,” he said.

“If they win, it depends on whether any (other) country is willing to take them.”

Gen Chaipruak said their situation was different from that of 40 Uyghurs sent back to China last year, a move that sparked international condemnation.

“This is a matter of justice, not related to policy, unlike the last 40 people,” he added, without elaborating.

China’s public security ministry said last year that the 40 deported men were “illegal migrants”.

Asked on Wednesday about the fate of the latest five, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning did not provide details.

“China and Thailand’s cooperation in combating cross-border criminal activities such as illegal immigration is in line with the two countries’ laws, international law and international practice,” she said.

Thailand is not a party to the UN Refugee Convention, but is bound by the international legal principle of non-refoulement, which bars countries from sending people back to places where their lives or freedom are in danger.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the two pardoned men should be allowed to travel to a safe third country.

HRW warned on Wednesday that in China they faced “grave risks of torture and other serious abuses”.

Beijing has been accused of detaining more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslims since 2017, part of a campaign that the United Nations previously said could constitute crimes against humanity.

China vehemently denies these allegations, saying its policies have boosted economic development and rooted out extremism in the Xinjiang region, where most Uyghurs are from.

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