Thailand again slammed for deporting 'refugees' to China

By Max Constant with additional reporting by Michael Hernandez in Washington

BANGKOK

Four months after it was roundly condemned for deporting 109 Uighur Muslims to China, the Thai junta has again raised human rights groups' ire -- this time for repatriating two pro-democracy activists to Beijing.

On Wednesday, the local United Nations office for human rights confirmed to Anadolu Agency that the two men had been deported and expressed concerns for their safety.

"We can confirm that the deportation took place in the past week," said Jeremy Laurence, a spokesman for Thailand’s UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

Having been recognized as refugees, the duo was waiting to travel to Canada when they were arrested by Thai authorities and held at an immigration detention center in Bangkok on immigration violations.

"Our concern is that they would be at risk of torture or ill-treatment in China," underlined Laurence.

The U.S. State Department joined with the UN to voice “grave disappointment” with the action.

"We urge Thailand to abide by its international obligations and commitments as well as its longstanding practice of providing safe haven to vulnerable persons," said spokesman John Kirby.

On Monday, the U.S. branch of Amnesty International also issued a statement expressing fears about the deportation of Jiang Yefei and Dong Guangpin -- both of whom had been imprisoned in China for criticizing the communist government.

According to Ireland-based rights group Frontline defenders, Yefei, a cartoonist, fled China in 2008, after he was detained and "reportedly subjected to torture" because he had given critical interviews to foreign media.

On release, he came to live in Thailand where he became the chairman of the Thai branch of the Federation for a Democratic China, a group opposed to the Chinese communist party.

Guangping was detained as a political prisoner in China from 2001 to 2004 "on a charge of ‘inciting subversion of state power’ for promoting democracy", added the rights group in a statement earlier this month.

He traveled to Thailand with his family after being detained for eight months last year following his participation in a commemoration of the 1989 crackdown against pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square.

"Both men had obtained refugee status," Laurence told Anadolu Agency.

"Even if Thailand has not signed the 1951 UN convention on refugees, the country is a party to the Convention against torture. And our concern is that the two could be exposed to torture."

In 2014, hundreds of Uighur arrived in Thailand and were detained by authorities who considered them illegal immigrants. Of that group, 109 were then deported to China in July, while around 180 had earlier been sent to Turkey.

When TV images of the deportation emerged -- showing them sitting in the plane blindfolded, handcuffed and under the surveillance of guards -- it caused uproar among local and foreign rights groups.

The incident was also condemned by the United States government and the UN.