US Sanctions Thai Officials for Deporting Uyghurs to China

The policy will apply to current and former foreign officials for deporting Uyghurs or members of other ethnic or religious groups with ‘protection concerns.’

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks with reporters following the G7 foreign ministers meeting in La Malbaie, Quebec, on March 14, 2025. Saul Loeb/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

The United States on March 14 announced visa restrictions on Thailand officials in response to the deportation of 40 Uyghurs to China, where the ethnic group has faced continued suppression.

The sanction came several weeks after Thailand sent back the 40 Uyghurs held in its custody for more than a decade. It applies to Thai officials responsible for the deportation decision, as well as other current and former foreign officials who played a part in deporting Uyghurs and other ethnic or religious groups with “protection concerns” to China.

“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,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.

Thailand previously defended its decisions, saying that the Uyghurs were sent back in accordance with Thai and international law. However, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Russ Jalichandra acknowledged earlier this month that the return of Uyghurs was out of concern about possible retaliation from the Chinese regime.

“Thailand could face retaliation from China that would impact the livelihoods of many Thais,” Jalichandra said in a statement on March 6.

Even though some countries had offered to resettle the Uyghurs, the Thai government considered them “unrealistic,” he said, adding that deporting them to China was the “best option.”

The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party said it “strongly applauds Secretary Rubio and the State Department’s critical action to impose visa restrictions on those complicit in Beijing’s brutal campaign against Uyghurs and other persecuted groups.”

“Forced returns to China condemn individuals to prison, torture, and worse. Those who enable China’s atrocities must be held accountable,” a spokesperson for the committee told The Epoch Times.

This photo provided by Thailand's daily web newspaper Prachatai shows trucks with black tape covering the windows leave a detention center in Bangkok, Thailand on Feb. 27, 2025.Nuttaphol Meksobhon/Prachatai via AP

State Department officials met several Uyghur groups on Friday before announcing the sanctions.

Rushan Abbas, executive director at Campaign for Uyghurs, said they had discussed sanctions during their meeting.

She said she had directly talked to the Uyghur men detained in Bangkok when she visited in late January and that the men were “unequivocal in their refusal to return to China.”

“Today’s announcement is a critical milestone and first step in holding those responsible for these egregious forced deportations accountable,” Abbas told The Epoch Times.

She said the visa restriction “sends a resounding message: countries that violate human rights and flout international law will face consequences.” She urged the international community to follow the United States’ example.

Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, welcomed Rubio’s visa restriction policy.

“Uyghurs face immediate risk of torture, disappearance, and other horrible things if returned,” he wrote on social media platform X. 

The United States has described the detention of more than 1 million Uyghur and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang as a genocide, and both the first Trump administration and the Biden administration have imposed sanctions on Chinese officials for suppression in Xinjiang.

On March 14, the European Parliament passed a resolution 482–57 condemning the Thai government’s decision to deport Uyghur refugees to China. It calls on the Thai authorities to “immediately halt any further forced returns of refugees, asylum seekers and political dissidents to countries where their lives are at risk,” and urges European Union member states to halt extradition treaties with China.

Slovak European Parliament member Miriam Lexmann applauded Washington’s latest sanction, calling it an “important move” to “fight back against the CCP’s transnational repression.”

“The EU should follow if it is serious about a values-based foreign policy,” she wrote on X.

Julie Millsap, government relations manager for advocacy group No Business With Genocide, said she was glad to see the action but hopes the United States can do more to prevent the deportation of those that remain and “protect vulnerable Uyghurs globally.”

“The United States should act in coordination with other countries to impose harsh sanctions on Chinese and Thai officials that were complicit in these deportations,” she told The Epoch Times.