NUR and CHRD Call on Thailand to Halt the Forced Return of Two Uyghur Men to China
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Risk grows shortly after 21 governments press Thailand at UN on deportations
The Network for Uyghur Rights (NUR) and the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) are deeply concerned that Thailand is preparing to return two Uyghur men to China, despite repeated calls from governments, United Nations (UN) bodies, and Thailand’s own National Human Rights Commission to protect them from persecution in China.
“It is a virtual guarantee that any Uyghur returned to China against their will faces harsh and immediate persecution—Thailand knows this and so does the rest of the international community,” said Zubayra Shamseden, Co-Executive Director at the Network for Uyghur Rights. “Anything less than an immediate halt to their deportation and safe passage to a third country would be a blatant violation of Thailand’s obligations under international law.”
“For decades, governments have stood by as Beijing hunted Uyghurs and exported repression around the world,” said Sophie Richardson, Co-Executive Director, Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders. “Securing these Uyghurs’ rights is essential to reversing that trend.”
The men, held in Thailand since 2014 in conditions UN experts warned might amount to torture and in which five Uyghur detainees, including two children, have died, were recently moved to the Suan Phlu Immigration Detention Center following royal pardons. They have since been held without access to lawyers, and made it clear to the representatives of the National Human Rights Commission, who visited them last week, that they do not wish to return to China.
Deporting them would violate the principle of non-refoulement, an absolute prohibition under Article 3 of the UN Convention against Torture, to which Thailand is a party, and under Section 13 of Thailand’s own Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act.
On November 4, Thailand’s National Security Council said the Chinese government must submit a formal extradition request for consideration by the Thai courts. UN experts, however, warned both governments in May 2025 that “any bilateral extradition or other such arrangements are subservient to the prohibition on refoulement,” and that diplomatic assurances from China “should not be used as a loophole to undermine” it, which means no extradition treaty or promise from Beijing can make the return of these men lawful.
The two men belong to a group of more than 300 Uyghurs detained in Thailand in 2014. In June 2015, Thailand allowed 172 women and children from the group to travel to Türkiye, and within weeks deported at least 109 others to China. Those who remained were held unlawfully in deplorable conditions across Thailand’s immigration detention centers.
In January 2025, UN experts urged the Thai government to halt the transfer of 48 Uyghurs to China, warning they were “at risk of suffering irreparable harm.” Within weeks, Thailand deported 40 of them to China, after telling UNHCR that no decision had been made and denying it access to the men.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk responded that his office had “urged, repeatedly” that Thailand respect its obligations, and demanded “no further deportations” and full protection for the remaining members of the group, while UNHCR called the deportation “a clear violation of the principle of non-refoulement.”
In May 2025, UN experts wrote to China asking where the 40 men deported in February were held and whether they had been detained. Beijing’s reply answered none of these questions, stating instead that the men’s “legal education will be strengthened,” the same language used to justify mass arbitrary detention in the Uyghur Region beginning in 2017.
If returned, these two men would face persecution of the kind the UN human rights office concluded in 2022 may amount to crimes against humanity. That analysis documented mass arbitrary detention, torture and enforced disappearances of Uyghurs—abuses for which no Chinese government officials have been investigated.
A September 2026 report by CHRD, which reviewed more than 200 cases of torture of prisoners of conscience between 2016 and 2025, documented torture in detention across almost every region of China, including the Uyghur Region, and found no official in any of those cases known to have been held accountable.
At Thailand’s Universal Periodic Review on November 9, 21 states from all five UN regional groups made recommendations on non-refoulement and deportation safeguards. The Netherlands raised the 2025 deportation of Uyghurs directly, and states including Brazil, Ecuador, the Republic of Korea, Togo, Türkiye, the United Kingdom, and Zambia urged Thailand to protect people at risk of persecution if returned, with several calling for individual risk assessments, legal counsel and an effective right of appeal before removal.
NUR and CHRD call on the Royal Thai Government to immediately halt any deportation or extradition of these men, or of other Uyghurs in its custody, to China, to grant their lawyers and UNHCR immediate access, and to facilitate their resettlement to a safe third country.
Media contacts
Zubayra Shamseden, Co-Executive Director, Network for Uyghur Rights
Email: zubayra[at]uyghurnetwork.org
Phone: +1 571 535 0639
Sophie Richardson, Co-Executive Director, Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders
Email: sophierichardson[at]nchrd.org
Phone: +1 917 721 7473