Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon said Monday he did not believe China would mistreat suspected Uighur refugees detained in Thailand if officials decide to repatriate them to China.
Illegal immigrants believed to be Uighurs were rounded up in Songkhla province in March . (Photo by Vichayant Boonchote)
No decision has been made whether or not to return the more than 200 migrants rescued in a March raid on a forest camp in Songkhla province, said Sek Wannametee, director-general of the Department of Information.
But Gen Prawit, speaking to reporters at army headquarters in Bangkok, said that China, given its high profile as a world power, was unlikely to retaliate against the refugees if they are found to be members of northwestern China's Muslim Uighur minority.
Of the 218 people detained in March, 195 women and children were sent to the ministry's Songkhla Home for Children and Women and the Technical Promotion and Support Office Region 12. The men were detained at immigration offices in several provinces. However, the Social Development and Human Security Ministry confirmed recently that up to 146 of the suspected Uighurs had escaped from their shelters.
Mr Sek said Monday that no decision had yet been made on their status because they have yet to undergo several immigration procedures, including nationality verification.
"The nationality verification is ongoing," he said. "Thailand insists on respecting human rights."
When apprehended, the refugees' claimed to be Turkish, but their nationality could not be immediately confirmed. The AFP news agency also quoted Qin Jian, Chinese consul in Songkhla, claiming that they refused to cooperate with Chinese authorities on proper identification.
Officials at the Chinese embassy last week said they had identified "dozens" of Uighurs from the Chinese region of Xinjiang among those still in custody. Gen Prawit, who is also defence minister, said that the matter of the immigrants would be considered an internal affair of China if they were proved to be Uighur people.
Tensions between minority Uighurs and the majority Han Chinese have left about 400 people dead in the past 20 months. Beijing has blamed the violence on terrorism, separatism and extreme religion and has harshly cracked down in the Uighurs' far northwestern home region. But human rights groups say the heavy-handedness is further alienating the Uighurs.
In 2009, 20 Uighurs were deported from Cambodia to China despite the objections of the United Nations and human rights groups, who said they faced lengthy jail terms upon their return. New York-based Human Rights Watch also criticised Malaysia for deporting six Uighurs to China in December.
AFP quoted Mr Qin as saying concerns about mistreatment of the suspected Uighurs in Thailand are unwarranted. "If they do not have criminal records back in China, there will be no prosecution," the consul told the news agency.