Bangkok – Thailand on Friday sought to defuse international criticism of its decision to deport nearly 100 Uighur Muslims back to China.
It said it had rejected a request from Beijing to return all the Uighur migrants held in its detention camps.
The deportations have drawn condemnation from the U.S and human rights groups and sparked sometimes violent protests in Turkey, home to a large Uighur the Diaspora.
Some Turks have a strong sense of shared cultural and religious heritage with the mainly Muslim Uighurs, who speak a Turkic language.
China accused `some foreign governments and forces’ of trying to exploit the Uighur issue for their own ends and said it was `cooperating normally’ with Thailand to curb illegal immigration.
Col. Weerachon Sukhondhapatipak, Deputy Thai government spokesman, said Bangkok, in line with `international agreement and international law’, had to verify the nationality of all the Uighur migrants case by case before deciding their fate.
“It is not like all of a sudden China asks for Uighurs and we just give them back. China asked for all Uighur Muslims in Thailand to be sent back but we said we could not do it,” he told newsmens.
Thailand has already identified more than 170 Uighurs as Turkish citizens and sent them to Turkey over the past month, said Weerachon, while nearly 100 were sent back to China.
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Fifty others still need to have their citizenship verified.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) strongly urged China to ensure proper treatment of the Uighurs.
On Friday New York-based Human Rights Watch said the Uighurs faced “grim” maltreatment back in China.
“Thailand should make it clear it won’t further violate international law by immediately announcing a moratorium on additional deportations of Turkic people to China,” said Sophie Richardson, China director for Human Rights Watch.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, hit back at Beijing’s critics at a daily news briefing on Friday.
“We have noticed that some foreign governments and forces have abused the facts and called these illegal immigrants, without any basis, refugees.
“They have unscrupulously criticized the normal law cooperation between China and Thailand on the issue of fighting illegal immigration,” she said. (Reuters/NAN)