China must make extradition request if it wants two Uyghur men returned, Thailand says

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand said Wednesday that China must make a formal extradition request if it wants two Uyghur men returned, in response to growing concerns and fears of abuse or torture if they are returned. The two men, in letters shared last week, pleaded not to be sent back to China.

Thailand’s head of the National Security Council Chaipruak Doungprapat said his agency will not make a decision on their deportation, unlike the case of 40 Uyghur men who were sent back to China last year. He said the process will go through the courts and the men will be able to defend themselves. If the court rules in their favor, it’s possible for them to be sent to another country for resettlement.

“But if the court rules against them, they will be extradited according to the treaty. This is the judicial process,” he said.

Human rights activists and some Thai politicians have raised concerns in recent days that the two men, who have been held in Thailand for more than a decade, will be sent back to China imminently. The two men were released from prison in late October and are currently held at the Suan Plu immigration detention center in Bangkok.

China has consistently pushed for the return of a group of 300 Uyghurs who were detained by Thai authorities in 2014 when they were on their way to the Thai-Malaysia border, saying they were terrorists.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning on Wednesday said “China and Thailand’s cooperation in combating cross-border crimes, including illegal immigration, is in accordance with the laws of both countries, as well as international law and international practice.” Mao didn't comment on whether China had sent an extradition request.

The two men, a 26-year-old and a 35-year-old, wrote letters that were then shared publicly last week. “Every time we are worrying from China to take back us,” one of them wrote in a letter shared by Kannavee Suebsang, a former lawmaker and founder of the Peace Rights Foundation, a human rights group that represents the men. “We aren’t terrorist," the Uyghur man wrote.

Sasinan Thamnithinan, a lawmaker from the opposition People's Party, said Tuesday that Thailand is obligated by both domestic and international law to ensure that no individual is returned to a country where they could face torture or inhumane treatment.

“Maintaining international relations is important, but it must not take precedence over human rights and the rule of law. No one should be sent back to face danger simply because the government wants to end a problem,” Sasinan said in a statement.

Uyghurs are a Turkic, majority Muslim ethnic group native to Xinjiang in China's northwest. After decades of conflict with Beijing over discrimination and suppression of their cultural identity, the Chinese government launched a brutal crackdown on the Uyghurs that some Western governments have called a genocide.

The two men were part of a group of more than 300 Uyghurs fleeing China that were detained in 2014 by Thai authorities near the Malaysian border. Of this group, Thailand sent a group of mostly women and children to Turkey. Then in 2015, Thailand deported 109 of those still detained to China against their will, prompting an international outcry which saw the Thai embassy in Turkey ransacked in protest. For more than a decade, the Thai government put off a decision on what to do about the group.

In February 2025, Thailand sent back 40 Uyghur men to China, despite pleas from Thai lawmakers and U.N. officials not to deport them.