Thailand Defends Deportation Decision as US Imposes Visa Restrictions on Officials Involved
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced sanctions against an unspecified number of Thai officials for deporting at least 40 Uighurs to China last month, despite concerns they could face persecution.
In a statement on Friday, Rubio said he was immediately imposing visa restrictions on current and former officials responsible for or complicit in the deportations. No specific Thai officials have been named.
For years, human rights groups have accused China of widespread abuses, including the mass detention of Uighurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority of about 10 million people in the western region of Xinjiang. Beijing has consistently denied these allegations.
“We are committed to combating China’s efforts to pressure governments to forcibly return Uyghurs and other groups to China, where they are subject to torture and enforced disappearances,” Rubio stated.
Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded on Saturday, saying it had repeatedly clarified to concerned countries that China had assured the safety of the deported individuals and that Thailand would monitor their well-being.
“Thailand has always upheld a long tradition of humanitarianism, particularly in providing assistance to displaced persons from various countries for more than half a century and will continue to do so,” the ministry said in a statement.
Thailand’s defense and justice ministers announced plans to visit the deported men in China next week, with several Thai journalists invited to accompany them.
In 2014, Thai authorities detained over 300 Uighurs fleeing China. By February of this year, 48 Uighurs remained in Thai custody before being deported to China, despite appeals from Thai lawmakers and international officials to halt the process.
Rubio condemned the deportations “in the strongest possible terms,” stating that Uighurs in China have faced “persecution, forced labor, and torture.”
In Facebook posts, the Chinese embassy in Bangkok claimed that 40 Chinese nationals who had been “smuggled” were repatriated to Xinjiang on a chartered flight and had “all returned home and reunited with their families after more than 10 years.”
Rubio has long been a critic of Beijing and was sanctioned twice by the Chinese government in 2020 for his support of Uighur rights and the people of Hong Kong.
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