The American embassy in Bangkok warns Americans of potential “violent retaliation attacks” on Friday after a group of 45 uyghurs was deported by Thailand To China in a State Secretary of State Marco Rubio convicted in the ‘strongest possible terms’.
Thai police and security officers said China had Given the guarantees that the men – who had been in custody for more than a decade – would not receive or be damaged. They said at a press conference on Thursday that they all returned voluntarily after they had shown a translation of a written Chinese agreement that asked for their repatriation and stated that they could normally live.
“In the past, similar deportations have given rise to violent retaliation attacks,” the American embassy warned on Friday. “The most striking thing is that in the aftermath of a 2015 deportation of Oeghurs from Thailand, improvised explosive devices exploded in the Erawan sanctuary in Bangkok who kills 20 people and injures 125 others, because this sanctuary is heavily visited by tourists from China.”
The embassy is now encouraging Americans in Thailand to “exercise increased caution and vigilance, especially at busy locations visited by tourists because of the potential for an increased colland risk.”
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Trucks with black tape that cover the windows are seen and leave a detention center in Bangkok, Thailand, on Thursday 27 February. Thailand has deported at least 40 uyghurs to China. (AP/Nurtahol Meksobhon/Prachatai via AP)
Rubio closed the deportations On Thursday it describes as a “forced return from at least 40 uyghurs to China, where they have no procedural rights and where Oeyghurs have had to deal with persecution, forced labor and torture.”
“As the long -standing ally of Thailand, we are alerted by this action, which runs the risk of running on his international obligations under the UN convention against torture and the international treaty on the protection of all persons against forced disappearance,” Rubio continued. “This action is contrary to the long -term protection tradition of the Thai people for the most vulnerable and is not consistent with the dedication of Thailand to protect human rights.”
“With all governments we are urging countries where Oeyghurs are looking for protection not to bring ethnic oyghurs back to China by violence,” he added.
“We call on the Chinese authorities to give full access to regularly verify the well -being of the returned Uyghurs,” Rubio said. “The Thai government must insist and fully verify that Chinese authorities protect the human rights of the Oeyghurs.”
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Thai soldiers inspect the scene after a bomb exploded outside a religious sanctuary in the center of Bangkok on 17 August 2015. (Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/AFP via Getty images)
Thai legislators, activists and lawyers had raised the alarm on Wednesday that the men were about to be deported, and after midnight, trucks with black sheets that covered their windows, left Bangkok’s immigration detention center, where they were held, according to the Associated Press.
The news agency reported that the truck took them to Bangkok’s airport of Bangkok, where a plane of China Southern Airlines was waiting and then to the heart of the Chinese Uyghur population in the northwestern province of Xinjiang.
In a statement on Facebook, the Chinese embassy recognized on Thursday that 40 Chinese nationals who came in illegally, according to Thailand, were deported by a chartered flight to Xinjiang.
Police are guardian outside the American embassy in Bangkok on January 28, 2015. (Reuters/Chaiwat subprasom)
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It said that the men had been held in Thailand for more than 10 years because of ‘complicated international factors’.
The Associated Press has contributed to this report.
