Forever stuck in limbo: Uyghurs in Thai immigration detention

Link to the program here.

For more than a decade, a group of Uyghur men have been held in cramped and unsanitary conditions in immigration detention in Thailand. Now numbering 48 individuals, these Uyghurs are the victims of a cruel game of the Chinese government’s transnational repression and realpolitik, with Beijing demanding their return to Xinjiang to face a highly uncertain fate. To date, at least five Uyghurs have died from treatable health conditions while in Thai custody.

Yet after former Prime Minister Gen. Prayut Chan-ocha and the NCPO military junta government sent another group of at least 109 Uyghurs back to China in May 2015, Thailand faced a torrent of international criticism from the UN and governments across Europe, North America and the Muslim world which stunned Bangkok. That same coalition of governments, backed by civil society groups and the exiled Uyghur diaspora, is strongly demanding Thailand allow the 48 to resettle and reunite with family members already overseas.

But Thailand fears antagonizing China, its powerful northern neighbor and major trade partner, either by formally recognizing the 48 Uyghurs as refugees, or simply releasing them, and permitting them to leave Thailand to resettle and live safely elsewhere.

In a comprehensive 2022 report, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights found that Uyghurs in Xinjiang face “interlocking patterns of severe and undue restrictions on a wide range of human rights,” including “far-reaching, arbitrary and discriminatory restrictions on human rights and fundamental freedoms, in violation of international norms and standards.” What the Thai government does next is particularly relevant since the government just took its seat on the UN Human Rights Council earlier this month.

Who are these men who have been trapped for the past decade? What do they and their families want? How has Thailand justified holding them for so long? And will 2025 finally see a change in their situation, for better or for worse?
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A panel of experts will discuss this political, moral and humanitarian conundrum, including:

Nyrola Elimae, Uyghur researcher and journalist, and author of the NY Times Magazine exposé on the escape of a Uyghur from Thai custody.

Mother of one of the current Uyghur detainees (audio message).

Sophie Richardson, co-executive director, Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD).