\n Five Uyghurs detained in Thailand since 2014 are subject to Chinese arrest warrants, the kingdom's security chief said Wednesday, adding that a court would decide if they would be returned to China.\n<\/p>\n
\n Human rights groups have raised concerns about the men -- members of the Muslim minority group who activists say are persecuted in China -- after two of them were pardoned by Thailand last month.\n<\/p>\n
\n They were among more than 300 Uyghurs held in Thailand in 2014, most of whom have since left -- including a group of around 40 sent last year to China, a move that sparked international outrage.\n<\/p>\n
\n The five were jailed for trying to escape immigration detention in 2020 and under Thai law have to serve their sentences before deportation.\n<\/p>\n
\n Two of them were pardoned last month and are in immigration detention awaiting their fate.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"These five have arrest warrants in China and they have no refugee status,\" Chaipruak Doungprapat, secretary-general of Thailand's National Security Council, told reporters on Wednesday.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said that if China requests their extradition, Thailand's foreign ministry would make an assessment and a court would then decide.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"If the court rules that they are guilty, they will be handed over under the extradition treaty,\" Chaipruak said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"If they win, it depends on whether any (other) country is willing to take them.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Asked Wednesday about the fate of the five men, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning did not provide details.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"China and Thailand's cooperation in combating cross-border criminal activities such as illegal immigration is in line with the two countries' laws, international law and international practice,\" she said.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Grave risks' -\n<\/p>\n
\n Thailand is not a party to the UN Refugee Convention, but is bound by the international legal principle of non-refoulement, which bars countries from sending people back to places where their lives or freedom are in danger.\n<\/p>\n
\n Human Rights Watch warned Wednesday that the Uyghurs faced \"grave risks of torture and other serious abuses\" in China, and should be allowed to travel to a safe third country.\n<\/p>\n
\n Beijing has been accused of detaining more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslims since 2017, part of a campaign that the United Nations previously said could constitute crimes against humanity.\n<\/p>\n
\n China vehemently denies these allegations, saying its policies have boosted economic development and rooted out extremism in the Xinjiang region, where most Uyghurs are from.\n<\/p>\n
\n In letters written by the two pardoned men and shared with AFP by Peace Rights Foundation, which provides them legal representation, they said they do not want to return to China.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"If we go back to China, we and our parents must receive death sentence(s),\" one letter says.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The Uyghur people have no human rights and are treated lower than animals.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n It adds: \"China is slandering us. We aren't terrorist(s).\"\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Rather die' -\n<\/p>\n
\n Thailand's foreign ministry did not immediately reply to emailed questions from AFP.\n<\/p>\n
\n But a ministry official told a parliament committee on September 16 that both China and a Western country had requested five detained Uyghurs be sent to them, according to parliamentary minutes.\n<\/p>\n
\n Kannavee Suebsang, chairman of Peace Rights Foundation, said defence lawyers have not been given access to the two pardoned men since October 21 when they were moved to immigration custody.\n<\/p>\n
\n The pair told a Thai human rights commissioner on Wednesday that they want to be resettled in a third country, Kannavee told AFP.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"They refuse to return to China and would rather die first.\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Five Uyghurs detained in Thailand since 2014 are subject to Chinese arrest warrants, the kingdom's security chief said Wednesday, adding that a court would decide if they would be returned to China. Human rights groups have raised concerns about the men -- members of the Muslim minority group who activists say are persecuted in China […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-168081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n