Beijing has confirmed it has detained two dissidents that Thailand deported to China on Nov. 13, despite the UN giving them refugee status.
Jiang Yefei and Dong Guanping, along with three other Chinese nationals given refugee status, were repatriated last week.
This was despite the UN arranging for them to be shortly transferred to Canada as refugees.
Security officials told state-ran newspapers that Jiang and Dong had been detained on illegal migration charges, The New York Times reported.
“Based on a cooperative mechanism between Chinese and Thai police, the Thai police followed the law and handed the two men over to the Chinese police on Nov. 13,” the Chinese newpaper report said.
It added that the men had confessed to wrongdoing, but gave no details of whether they were receiving legal help.
The UN Refugee Agency was furious at the Thai government over the deportation, saying it was “a serious disappointment and underscores the long-standing gap in Thai domestic law concerning ensuring appropriate treatment of persons with international protection need.”
Dong and his wife and daughter came to Thailand in September. The dissident had been jailed and secretly detained in China for subversion after he attended an event commemorating those who died during the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square.
Jiang had been in Thailand since 2008 after being forced to flee the country when he criticised the Chinese Communist Party for their handling of the Sichuan earthquake.
PM Prayuth Chan-ocha said on Tuesday the two men had “violated immigration law and after checking we found that there was an arrest warrant from the source country.”
“They asked us to send them back and we had to send according to procedure.”
Thailand was previously rapped by the United States after it deported 109 Uighur refugees to China in July.
The Turkic-speaking Uighurs, who are mainly Muslim, claim they face persecution and mistreatment in China.
Related:
PM Prayuth says Chinese refugees deported after Beijing request
Reader Interactions