Key facts
- Government spokesman Ekkapob Pianpises said the two men closest to finishing sentences have been appointed a lawyer.
- General Chaiyapruek Duangprapat of the National Security Council said the other three must serve about another year for the escape attempt.
- Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said China and Thailand's cooperation on cross-border crimes follows both countries' laws and international practice.
- Thailand and China signed an extradition treaty in 1993 that took effect in 1999, and requests under it must go through Thai courts.
- Human Rights Watch's Elaine Pearson said previous Thai governments held Uyghurs in inhumane detention and then sent them to China.
Thailand will let five Uyghur men challenge a Chinese extradition request in court before approving any deportation, Thai government spokesman Ekkapob Pianpises told Reuters on November 4, 2026. He said the government had granted them the right to contest the case, that two of the men had been appointed a lawyer, and that the courts would decide their challenge.
The five were among about 300 Uyghurs who fled to Thailand from China's western Xinjiang region in 2014 and were detained for illegal entry. They were later prosecuted for escaping detention. General Chaiyapruek Duangprapat, secretary-general of Thailand's National Security Council, told reporters the same day that three of the men still have about another year to serve in Thai jail for the escape attempt, while the other two are near the end of their sentences.
Asked about the extradition request, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters that cooperation between China and Thailand against cross-border crimes such as human smuggling was in line with both countries' laws and international law and practice. Thailand and China signed an extradition treaty in 1993 that entered into force in 1999, but requests under the pact must go through Thai courts.
Human rights groups urged Thailand to halt the extradition, saying the men faced a grave risk of torture and other abuses in China. "Previous Thai governments have kept Uyghurs in inhumane detention for years and then complied with Beijing's demands to send them to China, where they were forcibly disappeared," said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
Rights groups and the United Nations have accused Beijing of abuses against the Uyghur minority, including mass use of forced labor in internment camps. Beijing denies any abuses.
Thailand sent nearly 100 of the Uyghurs arrested in 2014 back to China the following year, drawing widespread condemnation, while a group of more than 170 were identified as Turkish citizens and sent to Turkey. Some diplomats and security analysts have linked that deportation to the bombing of a Bangkok shrine a month later that killed 20 people. Thailand deported another 40 Uyghurs from the same group to China in February 2025 despite appeals from United Nations human rights experts to halt their return.