Five Uyghur detainees in Thailand face deportation risk: WUC warns two men transferred to immigration detention after royal pardons face imminent return; Thai NSC to decide on all five

🔊 A Chinese audio reading of this record is available on the Chinese page. 简体中文

According to an ANI dispatch carried by multiple outlets on October 30, 2026, the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) has warned that two Uyghur men, granted royal pardons and transferred from regular detention to an immigration detention facility on October 21, face imminent deportation to China, where they could face torture and enforced disappearance. The two are among five Uyghurs who remain in detention in Thailand, from a larger group of approximately 300 Uyghurs who fled persecution in China and were detained near the Thai-Malaysian border in March 2014. According to an internal memo obtained by Khaosod English and reported on October 30, Thailand's National Security Council (NSC) will decide whether to repatriate all five detainees; the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok is seeking the repatriation of all five, while the Thai Foreign Ministry has told the embassy that the decision rests with the NSC. [1][2]

Why it matters

This episode is worth recording for three reasons. First, the risk is on a countdown rather than a distant worry: the two men have just passed through the 'pardon, then transfer to immigration detention' step, and, on the Congress's assessment, deportation is the next step; meanwhile the NSC decision has not yet been made, so international appeals still have a window to intervene — precisely the moment a public record matters. Second, the precedent is stark: the Congress says Thailand already deported 100 people from the same group in 2015 and another 40 in 2025 despite widespread opposition, and that families have been unable to establish contact with any of those deported, with neither Chinese nor Thai authorities providing any proof of life even a year after deportation — so 'what happens after deportation' is no longer abstract speculation. Third, three lines of reporting converged on the same day on the same pending decision: the Congress's public statement, the internal memo obtained by Khaosod, and the Amnesty International secretary general's in-person appeal in Bangkok. The conservative boundary is equally clear: the memo is an internal document disclosed by the media and not confirmed by Thai officials; no deportation has yet taken place and the NSC decision has not been made; characterisations such as 'genocide' are the Congress's claims, attributed throughout, hence 'under ongoing verification'. [1][2]

Full report

According to the ANI dispatch of October 30, the Congress said the two Uyghur men were granted royal pardons and transferred from regular detention to an immigration detention facility on October 21, warning that their deportation was imminent. The two are among five Uyghurs who remain in detention in Thailand, from a larger group of approximately 300 Uyghurs who fled persecution in China and were detained near the Thai-Malaysian border in March 2014. The Congress said that in 2015, Thai authorities deported 100 Uyghurs from the group to China. Those who remained were held for years in immigration detention centres under what the Congress described as de facto incommunicado detention: allegedly denied access to legal representation and non-governmental organisations, receiving inadequate medical care and nutrition, and having limited opportunities for physical exercise. Five members of the group died while in detention. [1]

The Congress further stated that in 2025, another 40 Uyghurs were deported to China despite widespread political and public opposition. According to the organisation, their families have been unable to establish contact with any of those deported, and neither Chinese nor Thai authorities have provided proof of life, even one year after their deportation. The organisation described the situation as enforced disappearance, alleging that the deported Uyghurs had effectively disappeared after being returned to China. Warning against the deportation of the remaining detainees, the Congress said Thailand would violate its international legal obligations if it returned the two men to a country where they could face serious risks of torture and enforced disappearance, citing the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Convention against Torture (CAT) and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED), and the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits returning individuals to countries where they face a risk of torture, other prohibited ill-treatment or enforced disappearance. [1]

According to Khaosod English on October 30, an internal memo obtained by the outlet says Thailand's National Security Council is to decide whether five Uyghur detainees will be repatriated to China. The leaked memo says the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok is seeking the repatriation of all five detainees, and states that the Thai Foreign Ministry told the embassy that the decision rests with the NSC. The memo further shows that two of the five have just completed prison terms for escaping Thai immigration detention facilities; they were released from prison and moved to an Immigration Police detention centre late last week. Krittaporn Semsantad, programme director at the Peace Rights Foundation, confirmed the contents of the internal memo to Khaosod English, said a House committee had invited representatives of the Foreign Ministry and NSC to explain the situation, and said she was very concerned for the two recently released detainees, urging Thailand not to return them to China. [2]

Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard, who is on a work visit to Thailand, told Khaosod on Thursday afternoon, October 29, that she hoped the government would not send the five detainees back to possible torture. 'Please don't send them back to a country where they could be tortured,' Callamard said. She is due to meet Deputy Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs Chettaphan Maksamohan on Friday, as well as a United Nations representative at the UN Office in Bangkok; an effort to meet Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul was unsuccessful, with the Prime Minister's Office citing his busy schedule. 'It's a question of human rights obligations [of the Thai government]. These people are victims of human rights violations, including torture,' Callamard said, adding that the Thai government should simply tell China, 'We don't know where they are,' rather than repatriate them. Separately, Khaosod English reported that the NSC said on its official Thai- and English-language Facebook page on Wednesday that it had received Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jianwei, who had congratulated the new NSC chief, Gen Chaipruak Doungprapat, on taking office; the two sides exchanged views on security matters, including Thailand-China law-enforcement cooperation and efforts against online crime. [2]

WUC President Turgunjan Alawdun said, according to the statement: 'Thailand must not deport these Uyghur refugees to China, as doing so risks making it complicit in the ongoing genocide against the Uyghurs.' He added that all countries had a responsibility to uphold international law and firmly reject the repression of Uyghurs, both within China and beyond its borders. The Congress called on Thailand to refrain from deporting the two Uyghur men and the remaining group of five detainees to China, urged third-country governments to offer resettlement opportunities to all five Uyghurs currently held in regular and immigration detention, and appealed to the European Union, the United Nations and governments of third countries to mobilise international pressure on Thailand to ensure that no Uyghur detainee is deported to China. As of publication, no public response from the Thai NSC or Foreign Ministry to the memo's contents or the Congress's statement was reported; the NSC decision has not been made. [1][2]

Verification note and links to this site's records: the core facts — the existence and content of the Congress's October 30 statement, the two men's October 21 transfer to immigration detention, the background of the five detainees and the 2015 and 2025 deportation history, the internal memo's account of the pending NSC decision and Beijing's request for all five, and Callamard's October 29 appeal and October 30 meeting schedule — come from the ANI dispatch and Khaosod English's October 30 reporting respectively; the memo itself has not been confirmed by Thai officials, and no deportation has yet taken place. Characterisations such as 'genocide' are the Congress's claims, with attribution preserved throughout. This site has not previously recorded the Thailand deportation issue (a February 2025 item was screened out in the October 25 round as outside the window), so this is the issue's first full record in this round; this site's October 29 record on the Congress urging the German president to raise Uyghur rights during his China visit concerns the same organisation but a separate episode, listed alongside this record without merging cases. This record is graded 'under ongoing verification' and will follow the NSC decision and the five men's fate. [1][2]

Primary sources

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