Thailand to Let Five Uyghur Men Challenge Chinese Extradition Request in Court as Rights Groups Warn of Return Risk
BANGKOK, Thailand — A Thai government spokesman told Reuters on November 4 that Thailand will allow five Uyghur men to challenge a Chinese extradition request in court before approving their deportation. Human rights groups warned they face the risk of torture if sent back. The men were among about 300 Uyghurs who fled to Thailand in 2014 and were detained for illegal entry; the five were later prosecuted for escaping detention. Government spokesperson Ekkapob Pianpises said two of the men are near completing their sentences and two have been appointed a lawyer, with the courts to decide their challenge; National Security Council secretary-general Chaiyapruek Duangprapat told reporters the other three still have to spend another year in Thai jail for their escape attempt.
The background traces to the same 2014 group. Reuters reported that hundreds, possibly thousands, of Uyghurs fled unrest in China's Xinjiang region in 2014, following a wave of violent attacks that prompted a massive crackdown by Chinese authorities; rights groups and the United Nations have accused Beijing of abuses against the Uyghur minority, including the mass use of forced labour in internment camps, and Beijing denies any abuses. Thailand and China signed an extradition treaty in 1993 that entered into force in 1999, but requests under the pact must go through Thai courts. Thailand sent nearly 100 of the Uyghurs arrested in 2014 back to China the following year, drawing widespread condemnation, while more than 170 were identified as Turkish citizens and sent to Turkey; in February 2025, Thailand deported another 40 from the same group to China despite appeals from United Nations human rights experts to halt their return.
The parties' positions are reported separately and are not treated as findings of fact. Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said: "Previous Thai governments have kept Uyghurs in inhumane detention for years and then complied with Beijing's demands to send them to China, where they were forcibly disappeared." Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters that China and Thailand's cooperation in tackling cross-border crimes such as human smuggling was in line with both countries' laws, international law and practice. This report does not state a court outcome or a deportation timetable; neither has been announced.
Source: Government of Thailand
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图片来源：泰国曼谷湄南河畔天际线，摄影 Piyatad，CC BY-SA 3.0（Wikimedia Commons）
