China seeks arrest of five Uyghurs held in Thailand: Bangkok

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.

In this photo taken on September 30, 2022, an immigration detention centre, where human rights activists believe that a group of Uyghurs are being detained, is pictured in the Sathorn area of Bangkok. Photo: Jack Taylor/AFP.

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.

They are among more than 300 Uyghurs who fled China and were held in Thailand in 2014. Many have been gradually transferred — one group to Turkey in 2015 and others to China in 2015 and 2025.

The five were jailed for trying to escape immigration detention in 2020. Of that group, the two pardoned remain in custody awaiting deportation, a rights campaigner and an official told AFP last week.

Under Thai law, imprisoned foreign nationals can only be deported once their sentences are complete.

“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.

He said that if China requests their extradition, Thailand’s foreign ministry will make an assessment and a court would then decide.

“If the court rules that they are guilty, they will be handed over under the extradition treaty,” Chaipruak said.

A Chinese flag. File photo: Aboodi Vesakaran, via Pexels.

“If they win, it depends on whether any (other) country is willing to take them.”

Chaipruak said their situation was different from that of 40 Uyghurs sent back to China last year, a move that sparked international condemnation.

“This is a matter of justice, not related to policy, unlike the last 40 people,” he added, without elaborating.

China’s public security ministry said last year that the 40 deported Chinese were “illegal migrants”.

Asked Wednesday about the fate of the latest five, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning did not provide details.

“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.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning during a press conference on March 11, 2025. Photo: China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the two pardoned men should be allowed to travel to a safe third country.

HRW warned Wednesday that in China they faced “grave risks of torture and other serious abuses”.

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.

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.