Dozens of men from the ethnic minority sought escape from repression in China a decade ago, but have been detained in Thailand ever since.
Dozens of Uyghur men who fled persecution in their native China only to find themselves detained in Thailand have entered the second week of a hunger strike in Bangkok. Their fast is a last-ditch effort to pressure the Thai government to halt what the detainees fear is imminent deportation to China, where they face the risk of torture and imprisonment.
The men, who have been in Thai detention centers for more than a decade, started their hunger strike on Jan. 10, two days after they were given “voluntary return” forms to sign, according to accounts from two of the detainees.
All refused to sign the forms, but they were then required to pose for photographs. These instructions set off panic among the detainees because the same series of events in 2015 preceded Thailand’s abrupt deportation of 109 other Uyghurs to China.
The Thai authorities have said that there are no plans to send them back, and denied that a hunger strike is taking place.
One of the detainees secretly communicated with a reporter and an activist, who shared his voice messages with The New York Times. The second detainee’s account was relayed by a family member. Four other people familiar with the matter also confirmed the details. The detainees have virtually no access to anyone except for monthly visits from a doctor.
Uyghurs are Turkic-speaking Muslims, many of whom live in the far western Chinese region of Xinjiang. Determined to eliminate perceived threats of ethnic separatism, the Chinese authorities placed the region under tight surveillance starting in 2014. Later, they detained as many as one million Uyghurs and others in internment camps and prisons, stepped up birth control measures for Muslim women and placed Muslim children in boarding schools.