Thailand will send a team of observers to China next week to witness how the 109 Uighur returnees are being treated, as the ruling junta faces increasing international criticism for deporting the migrants to face possible persecution in the Communist state.
Bangkok is also discussing with Beijing whether to allow international organisations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross to observe the deportees' living conditions, a spokesman said yesterday.
Muslim and human rights groups have accused the government of separating the Uighur families, by sending the male migrants to China and the women and children to Turkey. The government denies the claim.
Local and international rights groups are also urging the regime not to send the remaining 60 Uighur migrants awaiting nationality verification to China.
Defending the expulsion, the government yesterday insisted the decision was made with consideration for the safety of the Uighurs after their return to China. "We didn't act prematurely nor entertain all requests," deputy government spokesman Weerachon Sukhondhapatipak said.
"We take into consideration their safety as we have set various rules and conditions with the Chinese," he said. They included sending a team of Thai security officials and diplomats to China next week. "We will see how they are fed. Will the sick get proper treatment? Will the wrongdoers or the accused receive a free and fair trial?"
Protesters angered by the expulsion attacked the Thai honorary consulate in Istanbul on Wednesday night. The group's deportation has also led to criticism by the United Nations, Turkey and the United States.
US State Department spokesman John Kirby said that the action "runs counter to Thailand's international obligations".
The UN refugee agency called the decision a "flagrant violation of international law" and urged Bangkok to allow those remaining to depart voluntarily to a country of their choice.
Turkey's Foreign Ministry condemned "Thailand's improper action" that sent the "Uighur Turks detained in Thailand to a third country without their will and consent". Local rights activists said the Uighur families were kept in cells by gender. The government sent the children and women to Turkey first, and a week later deported the men to China, separating husbands from wives and fathers from children.
“Soon after the Thai government was lauded for sending over 170 Turkic women and children to the country of their choice [Turkey], the same government made a u-turn on its policy by sending the Turkic men to a country where they didn’t want to go [China]," said Human Rights Watch's Thailand representative Sunai Phasuk.
Chalida Tajareonsuk, chairwoman of the People's Empowerment Foundation, said China has a record of poor treatment of minorities. The government's action was "simply a violation of the Convention Against Torture”.
The Uighur issue in Thailand dates back to March 2013 when three batches of Muslim migrants were found. A group of 222 and another group of 77 were found a week apart in Songkhla, and another group of 200 were found along the Thai-Cambodian border, according to National Security Council (NSC) secretary-general Anusit Kunakorn, who denied the accusation of family separation.
"Our policy was not to separate families and the immigration police were trying their best to implement that policy," said Mr Anusit, who will join the inspection team to China.
In recent years, China has pressured Thailand to send its "citizens" back while the Foreign Ministry and the dove wing of the NSC opposed the idea of deportation, which they said breached human rights.
The authorities sorted the detainees into two groups. The first group consisted of 140 children and 32 women who were not involved in illegal activities, all of whom were sent "voluntarily" to Turkey with the support of the Turkish government, Mr Anusit said. The second group of 85 men and 24 women was verified by Chinese authorities as Chinese citizens. Some were thought to be be involved in wrongdoing, he said. For the group of 60 (four children, four women and 52 men) still in Thailand, immigration police are verifying their nationality.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha insisted Thailand made the right decision to deport the Muslim migrants to China as Thais did not want to be caught in the middle of a conflict between China, its ethnic group and Turkey.