United Nations human rights experts have urged Thailand not to send 48 Uyghurs in its custody back to China, warning they are at risk of torture, ill-treatment and "irreparable harm" if returned.
Human rights groups and some Thai lawmakers have raised concerns in the past week that the transfer to China of the Uyghurs, who have been held in immigration detention for more than a decade, was imminent. The government has said it has no such plans.
Rights groups accuse Beijing of widespread abuses of Uyghurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority that numbers around 10 million in the western region of Xinjiang, including the mass use of surveillance and forced labour in camps. Beijing denies any abuses.
"These persons should not be returned to China," said U.N. Human Rights Special Rapporteurs in a statement on Tuesday on the 48 Uyghurs.
"Instead, they must be provided with access to asylum procedures and other humanitarian assistance," the experts said, adding half of the group had serious health conditions.
Thai Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said last week there was no immediate plan to deport the Uyghurs to China, while national police chief Kittirat Panpetch said on Monday there had been no government order on their deportation.
Babar Baloch, a spokesperson for the U.N. refugee agency said last week the agency was assured by Thai authorities they would not be transferred to China.
China's embassy in Thailand did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Incoming U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during his confirmation hearing last week he will use his country's strong relationship with Thailand to prevent the Uyghurs from being sent back.
DECADE DETAINED
The detainees were part of a group of 300 Uyghurs who fled China and were arrested in Thailand in 2014.
More than 170 others, mostly women and children, were sent to Turkey in June 2015, leaving more than 50 Uyghurs in Thai detention. At least five of those have since died, according to human rights groups.
The Chinese authorities at the time said many Uyghurs who fled to Turkey via Southeast Asia planned to bring jihad back to China, saying some were involved in "terrorism activities".
Over the years, hundreds, possibly thousands, of Uyghurs have escaped Xinjiang by travelling clandestinely via Southeast Asia to Turkey.
Diplomats and security analysts said Thailand's 2015 deportation of Uyghurs to China led to a deadly bomb attack a month later at a Bangkok shrine that killed 20 people in what was the worst attack of its kind on Thai soil.
Thai authorities concluded that attack was linked to its crackdown on a human trafficking ring, without specifically linking the group to the Uyghurs.
Two ethnic Uyghur men were arrested, and charged with murder and illegal possession of explosives and their trial, which has been delayed repeatedly, is ongoing.
