A Thai lawyer is looking for the discharge of 42 Uyghurs who’ve spent greater than a decade in detention and who rights teams worry may very well be deported to China the place they’d be susceptible to torture.
The lads from the principally Muslim minority from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Area in China have been held on immigration prices at a Thai detention heart since making an attempt to flee Beijing’s persecution by means of Thailand.
Lawyer Chuchart Kanpai mentioned in a petition submitted to a courtroom on Thursday that the boys had spent sufficient time locked up and ought to be freed.
“They’ve been jailed from 2013 to 2025, greater than 10 years. It’s apparent that they’ve accomplished the sentence,” Chuchart mentioned within the petition, in response to a replica obtained by Radio Free Asia.
“Detention is subsequently illegal.”
The rights group Justice for All mentioned early this month that stories from 48 detained Uyghur asylum seekers indicated that Thai authorities had been coercing them to fill out varieties in preparation for his or her deportation to China.
It was not instantly clear why the rights group referred to 48 detained Uyghurs however Chuchart recognized 42 in his petition.
A authorities spokesman mentioned on January 23 that Thailand had “no coverage” to deport the Uyghurs and he dismissed hypothesis that they’d be pressured again to China.
Uyghurs in China’s huge Xinjiang area have been subjected to widespread human rights abuses, together with detention in large focus camps. China denies that however UN specialists on January 21 additionally urged Thailand to not deport the Uyghurs saying they’d possible face torture.
Chuchart, after lodging the petition, mentioned the courtroom would maintain a listening to on February 17.
“We can have witnesses together with those from the World Uyghur Congress,” Chuchart advised reporters, referring to an advocacy group that this month appealed to Thailand to not ship the boys to China. —Radio Free Asia
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