Hundreds have been caught along the way and confined to refugee detention centers in Thailand. <\/p>\n
2015-05-28<\/p>\n
Uyghurs from all parts of northwestern China are relying on networks of Chinese smugglers to take them across the border into neighboring Southeast Asian countries en route to their final destination Turkey, according to those who have been caught and detained in Thailand, a key way station.<\/p>\n
Nearly 370 Uyghurs \u2014 Turkic-speaking, ethnic Muslims from China\u2019s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region \u2014 are being held in four refugee detention centers in Thailand after they were picked up by authorities there for illegally entering the country. The centers are located in the cities of Bangkok, Rayong, Trat and Padang Besar.<\/p>\n
During the last couple of years, Uyghurs have been leaving China in droves to escape persecution and repression by authorities who consider them separatists and terrorists and have cracked down on their religion and culture. Chinese authorities have blamed an upsurge of violence in Xinjiang since 2012 on terrorists and Islamist insurgents seeking to establish an independent state.<\/p>\n
The Uyghurs detained in camps in Thailand are from Urumqi (in Chinese, Wulumuqi), the capital of Xinjiang, and the prefectures of Turpan (Tulufan), Kashgar (Kashi), Aksu (Akesu) and Hotan (Hetian), according to Seyyid Abdulkadir Tumturk, a representative of the Turkey-based Uyghur organization the East Turkestan Culture and Cooperation Association in Thailand.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey first go to Chinese cities,\u201d he told RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service about the Uyghurs who have fled Xijiang. \u201cThe Chinese smugglers take the Uyghurs to Cambodia, Vietnam and other bordering countries. The Chinese have connections, so when the Uyghurs are taken to a certain destination, the smugglers then hand them over to other smugglers, and they continue to smuggle them all the way to Malaysia, from where the Uyghurs to go to Turkey.\u201d<\/p>\n
Uyghurs detained in Thailand and ones who have made it to Turkey told Tumturk that they were \u201cforced to abandon their homeland, memories, lives and loved ones\u201d and risk everything to escape persecution in China.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is certain that Uyghurs are risking everything because of the persecution that the Chinese government has brought upon them,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s getting impossible for the Uyghurs to have human rights there.\u201d<\/p>\n
About 70 Uyghurs have been detained in a government-run refugee detention center in Padang Besar in Songkhla province\u2019s Sadao district, southern Thailand, since March 2014 in cramped and unhygienic conditions, sources there told RFA.<\/p>\n
Many have complained of worsening conditions and poor food quality, and held a hunger strike in January to demand authorities improve the situation at the facility. One ethnic Uyghur boy detained there died last December after contracting tuberculosis.<\/p>\n
The 300 others are being held at the other detention facilities.<\/p>\n
The detainees have remained in limbo more than a year into their detention, with Beijing demanding they be repatriated to China.<\/p>\n
Nabbed in Thailand<\/strong><\/p>\n One Uyghur who was detained in a police station in Thailand told RFA that he, his pregnant wife, and three children were arrested in February in the southern part of the country near the Malaysian border while they were traveling without passports en route to Malaysia and then to their final destination Turkey.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore we embarked on this journey, we talked to the Chinese people who agreed to take us out of China. We paid them money. There are Chinese human smugglers there. We didn\u2019t know them, but some people put us in touch with them to take us across the Chinese border.\u201d<\/p>\n It took his family 10 days to travel from the Chinese border to Thailand via Myanmar and Laos before they were arrested in Thailand, he said. Most of the time, they traveled by car, but had to use small canoes between Laos and Thailand.<\/p>\n \u201cWe walked on foot from the Chinese border to Myanmar where prearranged people picked us up and took us to the Laos border and to Thailand,\u201d he said. \u201cI cannot tell you how much [money we paid], but the rest of it was going to be wired after we made it to our final destination.\u201d<\/p>\n When Thai officials arrested them, the Uyghur told them that he and his family were Turkish citizens.<\/p>\n \u201cThey brought two Chinese interpreters, but I told them that I wasn\u2019t Chinese, so they left,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The family took such a huge risk because of \u201cthe endless suffering, hardships and layers upon layers of pressure and persecution heaved upon us\u201d by Chinese authorities in Xinjiang, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe [Uyghurs] were deprived of our rights to protect our women, our children, culture, our nationality and people,\u201d he said. \u201cSimply put, were not treated as humans.\u201d<\/p>\n China\u2019s heavy-handed rule in Xinjiang<\/strong><\/p>\n Uyghur exiles and rights groups have criticized Chinese authorities\u2019 heavy-handed rule in the region \u2014 including police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people \u2014 which they say has forced many to flee overseas, often through Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n \u201cIf China calls them [the Uyghurs] criminals, then it should call the ones who are taking the Uyghurs\u2019 money to take them out of China criminals,\u201d Tumturk said.<\/p>\n Ismail Madadam, head of Islamic center of Songkhla province, who is helping the Uyghur detainees, told RFA that the people in the refugee detention centers are not terrorists.<\/p>\n \u201cThey might be people who are seeking justice,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is a very narrow line between someone seeking justice and terrorists. When they fight for justice, someone is going to say they are terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n Abdul Aziz Pitakumpol, one of the most prominent Muslim leaders in Thailand, agreed.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Uyghurs here are not terrorists,\u201d he told RFA.\u201d \u201cThey are the people who are looking for freedom to practice their religion.\u201d<\/p>\n Thai Immigration authorities are in the process of verifying the identities of the Uyghurs in the detention centers, who claim to be Turkish citizens, said Choosuk Panutumpron, deputy commander of Immigration Division 6 at the Thai Immigration Bureau.<\/p>\n He said the detainees are not victims of human trafficking, despite the fact that people smugglers brought them into the country.<\/p>\n \u201cSince there is not slavery, prostitution or other exploitation involved in their cases, we cannot call it trafficking in humans,\u201d he told RFA. \u201cThey are the people who wanted to travel by paying human smugglers.\u201d<\/p>\n A Turkish diplomat based in Bangkok, who declined to be identified, said the ball was still in Thailand\u2019s court regarding what to do with the Uyghurs.<\/p>\n \u201cTurkey\u2019s position on Uyghur case is not going to change,\u201d he said, referring to the country\u2019s efforts to relocate the Uyghur refugees to Turkey.<\/p>\n Turkish officials would continue to discuss the issue with the Thai government through diplomatic and other channels, he said.<\/p>\n Right to choose their citizenship<\/strong><\/p>\n Chalida Tajaroensuk, director of Thai civil society group People’s Empowerment, pointed out that Thailand is not a signatory to the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention and does not have a formal national asylum framework, so anyone who comes there to seek refuge is considered an illegal migrant.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have been put in detention centers, and after their citizenship has been determined, they will be deported back to their countries,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when it comes to the Uyghurs, there is big problem between China and Turkey [because] both countries claim that the Uyghurs are their citizens. So, it is very difficult for the Thailand to make decision.\u201d<\/p>\n But Tajaroensuk noted that under the U.N.\u2019s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Thailand ratified in October 1996, the Uyghurs have the right to choose their citizenship.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Uyghurs want to go to Turkey, so they should be allowed to leave,\u201d he said. \u201cThailand should respect all the articles of the covenant, [but] it is putting its diplomatic relationship with China ahead of them. It\u2019s not fair.\u201d<\/p>\n The Uyghurs ended up in Thailand because their human rights were being violated and they were subject to racism in China, Tajaroensuk said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the people are not happy living in that county, and the policy of that county does not respect human rights, religion or culture, \u2026 they have the right to leave the country to search for a better life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Reported by Mamatjan Juma of RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service. Translated by Mamatjan Juma. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hundreds have been caught along the way and confined to refugee detention centers in Thailand. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-1853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1853"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=1853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}