Two Uyghur men transferred to immigration detention in Thailand face possible deportation to China, where activists warn their lives would be in grave danger, according to reporting by The Guardian’s Amy Hawkins.

Human Rights Watch is urging Thailand to let the men travel to a safe third country. Their transfer has raised fears of another forced return after Thai authorities deported 40 Uyghur men to China last year despite appeals from the detainees and the United Nations.

The UN says the whereabouts of those returned last year remain unknown, The Guardian reported.

One of the two men now at risk wrote to his girlfriend in July that he would be “like a slave” if sent back. His name is being withheld for security reasons. His girlfriend, who uses the Islamic alias Marzeyya Kasem, shared the letter with a Thai rights group.

The two men had been serving seven-year prison sentences for offences related to an attempted escape from immigration detention in January 2020. They were among more than 200 Uyghur men, women and children detained near Thailand’s border with Malaysia in 2014 after fleeing China.

Elaine Pearson, Human Rights Watch’s Asia director, said previous Thai governments had held Uyghurs in inhumane conditions for years before returning them to China, where they were forcibly disappeared.

It remains unclear whether China has submitted a formal extradition request for the two men. Thailand’s national security council chief, Chaipruak Doungprapat, told reporters that they and three other Uyghurs still in prison had outstanding arrest warrants in China. Kasem questioned the credibility of the warrants, saying her boyfriend was a minor when he left the country.

Uyghurs are a largely Muslim Turkic minority mainly from China’s Xinjiang region. The UN has described the crackdown against them as potentially amounting to crimes against humanity. Beijing says its policies target poverty and terrorism.

China’s foreign affairs ministry told The Guardian that its cooperation with Thailand against cross-border crime complied with domestic and international law. Thailand’s foreign affairs ministry declined to comment.

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