As Thailand faces calls from rights groups and UN experts not to deport a group of Uyghur asylum seekers to China, further questions have surfaced about the approach of the UN’s refugee agency, including why it withdrew asylum seeker status from two of the men.
Thai authorities arrested more than 300 Uyghur asylum seekers near the Malaysian border in 2014. The two countries were part of a popular overland route for Uyghurs fleeing repression in China to claim asylum in Türkiye, which hosts a large Uyghur community.
Most of the detainees were either transferred to Türkiye or deported to China in 2015. Now, after more than a decade in Thai immigration detention, the remaining 48 men say they face an immediate threat of deportation.
All of the men have submitted asylum applications to UNHCR, which has acknowledged receiving them but hasn’t said whether they are being processed or not. The agency maintains its staff have never been allowed by Thai authorities to “engage with the caseload for the purpose of facilitating solutions”.
The current deportation threat has placed the agency’s approach to the group under further scrutiny.
“Nothing prevents UNHCR from declaring these people refugees. I don’t understand why this has not happened,” Sophie Richardson, co-executive director of Chinese Human Rights Defenders, said during a 22 January panel event in the Thai capital, Bangkok.
Documents seen by The New Humanitarian show that the process did begin for at least two members of the group. Shortly after they arrived in Thailand more than a decade ago, UNHCR issued two of the men with certificates designating them as asylum seekers whose requests for refugee status were being examined. The New Humanitarian is withholding dates and other personal information out of concern for the men’s safety.
These certificates, also known as white papers, are the first in a series of documents asylum seekers may receive from UNHCR during the refugee status determination process. The process generally ends with the requests being either accepted – granting the applicant protection under international law – or rejected.
In the case of these two Uyghur men, UNHCR renewed the certificates every six months for several years before allowing them to expire.
This unusual move raises questions about how UNHCR was able to begin processing the two detainees’ requests for refugee status, why that process stopped, and why applications from the rest of the group have not led to refugee status determinations.
“If the certificates were withdrawn or allowed to expire, it certainly makes you question how hard the agency has been pushing to protect the group,” said Ben Carrdus, a senior researcher at the Uyghur Human Rights Project.
Even with active certificates, the two men would not be fully protected from deportation. Thailand is not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention and does not recognise refugee status, instead categorising asylum seekers as illegal migrants.
However, Thailand’s non-accession to the Refugee Convention also means the mandate to grant refugee status in the country lies with UNHCR, according to Phil Robertson, director of Asia Human Rights and Labor Advocates (AHRLA).
“They could grant the Uyghurs refugee status unilaterally,” he told The New Humanitarian. “They could be considered refugees sur place.”
Absent a unilateral declaration by UNHCR, rights advocates say the asylum seeker certificates could serve as a deterrent against complying with China’s requests for repatriation, particularly with Thailand serving a three-year term on the UN Human Rights Council.
“Especially in the case of highly vulnerable people, and a government in Beijing actively demanding their deportation, issuing or renewing certificates offers a line of protection,” Carrdus told The New Humanitarian.
“Registration would also oblige UNHCR to intervene on behalf of detainees, but there are distressing indications that protection of the group from deportation has not been their top priority,” he added.
Babar Baloch, a UNHCR spokesperson, declined to answer questions about the certificates.
Indefinite limbo
Forty-three of the Uyghurs are being held without charge in Bangkok’s Suan Phlu immigration detention centre (IDC), while the other five are serving sentences in a separate prison for an escape attempt.
The Suan Phlu facility is overcrowded and unsanitary, and Uyghur inmates are barred from communicating with their families, lawyers, and non-Uyghur detainees. Nearly half of the men suffer from serious health conditions, according to UN human rights experts. The experts warned last year that Thailand’s treatment of the group may amount to torture and arbitrary detention.
Five Uyghurs have died in detention, including two children.
For over a decade, successive Thai governments have resisted pressure from China to repatriate the group, as well as pressure from Western governments to release them, leaving the men in an indefinite limbo.
“We are now facing the imminent danger of being forcibly returned to China.”
Fears of deportation reignited on 8 January, when Thai immigration authorities asked the 43 Uyghurs in Suan Phlu to sign documents offering their consent to be repatriated to China, according to a handwritten statement they released two days later.
“After we clearly refused to sign, the IDC authorities took photos of each of us,” the statement said. “We are now facing the imminent danger of being forcibly returned to China.”
The brother of one of the detainees – not one who previously held a UNHCR certificate – said this is the most serious threat of deportation the group have faced in nearly a decade.
“If he is deported to China, he will most likely be sentenced to prison for life, or receive the death penalty,” the brother told The New Humanitarian, requesting anonymity out of fear of reprisals against himself and the detainees.
In the following weeks, human rights groups, UN experts, and American politicians have called on Thailand to halt the removals.
Marco Rubio, US President Donald Trump’s recently confirmed secretary of state, told his Senate confirmation hearing on 15 January that he would press the Thai government to prevent the Uyghurs from being sent to China.
That same day, China’s embassy in Bangkok accused the men of being Uyghur separatists.
Two days later, Thai Defence Minister Phumtham Wechayachai told reporters that the National Security Council, which oversees the Uyghurs’ detention, had discussed the group after UNHCR expressed concern about them. He denied there were immediate plans to deport them.
Thai lawmaker Kannavee Suebsang told The New Humanitarian that the deportation plans appear to have been delayed after he and civil society organisations raised their concerns with the government.
“If we didn’t take any action, I believe they would soon have deported the Uyghurs,” he said.
During a parliamentary session on 15 January, Kannavee questioned the speaker of Thailand’s House of Representatives over whether the government had any evidence to justify the Uyghurs’ prolonged detention. He said parliamentary rules require Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra to respond within 30 days.
“Otherwise, I will continue shouting and requesting the prime minister to have the guts to make a policy decision in terms of the Uyghur refugees,” he said.
Fears persist
Despite the apparent reprieve, many of the detained Uyghurs are staging a hunger strike to demand assurances that Thailand will not hand them over to China.
“There are still fears they will be sent back,” said John Quinley, director of Fortify Rights. “Uyghurs have been sent back by Thailand before.”
In 2015, Thailand sent around 170 Uyghur women and children to Türkiye, but it also handed over at least 109 Uyghur men to Chinese police. Chinese authorities accused some of the men – without presenting evidence – of leaving the country “to join jihad” in the Middle East. The US, Türkiye, and UNHCR condemned the deportations. The men have not been heard from since.
After the transfers, dozens of men were still left in Thai immigration detention – a measure generally used to hold migrants for short stints before they are deported or released. At least 20 have since escaped, leaving the current 48.
“Their main mandate is to protect refugees. They should be pushing the Thai government both privately and publicly to stop even the idea of sending Uyghurs back.”
For years, China continued to request the Uyghurs’ repatriation “as a standard talking point”, according to UNHCR documents seen by The New Humanitarian. Around 2019, the Thai government tried to persuade UNHCR to “find a solution to the issue” and may have been willing to provide access to the group, according to the documents.
Staff in UNHCR’s Thailand office suggested the Thai government’s requests were part of an effort to “use UNHCR as a shield to deflect the ire of China”, according to the documents. They concluded that “taking pro-active steps before the Thai authorities engage UNHCR officially is not advised”.
Baloch said the agency is urging Thai authorities to provide alternatives to detention and assurances that the men will not be deported.
“UNHCR has also repeatedly offered its good offices to seek solutions for this group,” he said. “States have the primary responsibility to protect refugees and asylum seekers.”
But Quinley said the agency should advocate more forcefully for their release.
“Their main mandate is to protect refugees. They should be pushing the Thai government both privately and publicly to stop even the idea of sending Uyghurs back,” he said. “UNHCR should also be clear about their policy to not keep the white cards active.”
In a statement shared with an activist and reviewed by The New Humanitarian, one of the 48 men who is currently on hunger strike said: “We know UNHCR has our refugee applications… We won’t eat until they let us meet UNHCR.”
Edited by Andrew Gully.