US sanctioned Thailand employees to deport Uighuri in China | News

Thailand defends the deportation decision as the US claims that this will impose restrictions on visas on the official complicit in deportations.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has declared sanctions against an unidentified number of employees in Thailand for deportation at least 40 Uyguri For China last month, despite fears, they can be persecuted.

Rubio said in a statement on Friday that he immediately imposed visa restrictions on current and former employees responsible for or complicit in deportations. No Thai employee is indicated.

For years, rights accused China of widespread abuses including WiguriMainly a Muslim ethnic minority of about 10 million people in the Western region of Sindzian. Beijing rejects these claims.

“We are committed to fighting China's efforts to put pressure on governments to bring back Uighurs and other groups in China, where they are subject to torture and impose disappearance,” Rubio said.

The Thailand Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that it had repeatedly had been clarified with countries that have given their concerns about men's safety, that China assures that they will be unharmed and that Thailand will follow their well -being.

“Thailand has always maintained a long tradition of humanitarianism, especially in providing the help of displaced persons from different countries for more than half a century and will continue to do so,” the ministry said.

The Ministers of Defense and Justice of Thailand said they had scheduled a trip next week to visit men in China. A number of Thai journalists have been invited to join them.

More than 300 Uighurs fleeing China were detained in 2014 by Thai authorities. Until February, 48 Uighur remained in Thai detention when authorities were preparing to send them back to China, despite the calls of Thai MPs and international officials not to do so.

Rubio condemned the return “to the strongest possible conditions”, saying that “Uighurs are faced with persecution, forced labor and torture” in China.

In Facebook publications, the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok said that 40 Chinese citizens who were “smuggled” were repatriated in Syndzian on Chartiran Flight and “everyone returned home and reunited with their families after more than 10 years.”

Rubio is a longtime critic of Beijing and he was twice sanctioned by the Chinese government in 2020 because of his support for the rights of Uighurs and people in Hong Kong.