The U.S. Mission in Thailand issued a security alert on Friday, cautioning U.S. citizens about the possibility of violent retaliatory attacks in the Southeast Asian nation following the Thai government’s deportation of Uyghur asylum seekers to China.
“Most notably, in the wake of a 2015 deportation of Uyghurs from Thailand, improvised explosive devices detonated at the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok killing 20 people and injuring 125 others as this shrine is heavily visited by tourists from China,” the statement said.
U.S. citizens in Thailand were advised to take extra caution, review personal security plans, and follow the instructions of local authorities.
According to Reuters, the Japanese embassy in Thailand also alerted its citizens by email but hasn’t changed its risk assessment about Thailand.
According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the World Uyghur Congress, the individuals were among hundreds of Uyghurs detained by Thai authorities in 2014 after fleeing China’s Xinjiang region, which pro-independence Uyghur activists call East Turkistan.
Chinese refugees, including the Uyghurs, often rely on people smugglers in their travels to Bangkok, where they seek asylum from the UNHCR. Many applicants remain in the country in limbo for years, with some being held at Thailand’s chronically crowded and unsanitary immigration detention center.
Of more than 300 Uyghurs detained in Thailand in 2014, five have since died in detention.
In 2015, Thai authorities sent 173 Uyghur detainees to Turkey, while its deportation of 109 Uyghurs to China in July that same year prompted protesters in Turkey outside the Thai embassy in Istanbul.
Weeks later, the Erawan Shrine bombing occurred.
Two Uyghurs, Yusufu Mieraili and Adem Karadag, who’s also known as Bilal Mohammed, were detained as suspects in the bombing not long after it occurred. Their trial, which began in a military court and was later moved to a criminal court, is still ongoing a decade later.
Karadag and Mieraili pleaded not guilty in both courts.
Human Rights Abuses in Xinjiang
The Uyghurs are a Turkic ethnic group who are mostly Muslim. They have been subjected to mass detention in China, with an estimated one million or more being placed in a sprawling network of internment camps and other detention facilities in the far-western region of Xinjiang.Survivors of the camps have described experiencing forced labor, forced sterilizations, political indoctrination, and other abuses during their time in detention.
The U.S. government has referred to the Chinese regime’s repression in Xinjiang as “genocide.”
The U.N. human rights office in 2022 found that the regime’s clampdown on Uyghur Muslims could amount to “crimes against humanity.”
Deportations Condemned
Since January, campaigners ramped up their calls urging the Thai government to halt any planned deportation of the remaining Uyghur detainees back to China.U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Thursday said the deportation is “a clear violation of international human rights laws and standards.” He urged Beijing to disclose the individuals’ whereabouts.
“Thai PM [Paetongtarn Shinawatra] defended the deportation of Uyghurs to China after 11 years in detention in Thailand for illegal entry, citing China promised no prosecutions and safe family reunification,” the statement said on X. “She affirmed the deportation was legal and a human rights matter, not related to trade agreement.”
Speaking in Beijing on Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian insisted that “the repatriation is carried out in accordance with the laws of China and Thailand as well as international law and common practices.”
He accused “certain countries and international organizations” of making “unfounded accusations” and fabricating “false narratives related to Xinjiang.”
