5 Uighurs who fled China and have been imprisoned for more than ten years may be "sent to China". Thai officials: Leave it to the court to decide

Chaipruak Doungprapat, secretary-general of Thailand’s National Security Council (NSC), said on the 4th that five Uyghur men detained in Thailand since 2014 are wanted in China, and the Thai court will decide whether these five people will be deported to China.

Uyghurs, a Muslim minority, have been repeatedly persecuted in China. In addition, two of the five people were pardoned last month. Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that the two pardoned people should be allowed to go to a safe third country.

In 2014, more than 300 Uighurs who fled China were detained in Thailand, including the above five people. These Uyghurs were later transferred one after another. Some of them were sent to Türkiye in 2015, and others were sent back to China in 2015 and 2025.

The fate of the five people is uncertain. They tried to escape from the immigration detention center and were sentenced to prison in 2020. Two of them were pardoned last month and are still in detention awaiting deportation. According to Thai law, foreigners imprisoned can only be deported after serving their sentences.

Chaipulu told reporters on the 4th that these five Uyghurs are wanted in China and do not have refugee status. If Beijing requests extradition, the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs will conduct an evaluation and then the court will make a ruling.

"If the court finds them guilty, they will be handed over (to China) under the extradition treaty; if they win (that is, the court does not find guilty), (where they go) depends on whether any (other) country is willing to take them," Chaipulu said.

Chaipulu also said that these five people are different from the 40 Uyghurs who were sent back to China last year; whether to repatriate these five people "is a judicial issue, not a policy matter, and is different from the previous 40 people." But he did not elaborate.

Thailand's deportations last year drew international condemnation. China's Ministry of Public Security said at the time that the 40 repatriated Chinese were "illegal immigrants."

On the 4th, when Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning asked about the fate of the five people, he did not provide specific details. He only said that China-Thailand cooperation in combating illegal immigration and other transnational criminal activities is in line with the laws of the two countries, international law and international practices.