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Bangkok [Thailand]Feb. 27 (ANI): A Uyghur refugee from China’s Xinjiang region died this month on suspicion of police negligence at an immigration detention center in Bangkok, Washington-based Voice of America News reported, adding that the death It has raised concerns about the treatment of more refugees. Since 2014, more than 50 Uighur refugees have been held at the center.
According to news reports, the victim has been identified as Abdulaziz Abdullah. His son Mohammad Abdullah, who lives in Kayseri, Turkey, said his family fled Xinjiang because of his father’s oppression and repeated arrests.
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He said Chinese police had arrested his father every year since 2009, according to VOA News.
“Chinese police have arrested my father every year since 2009 whenever they started to crack down [anti-terrorism] election campaign,” VOA quoted Mohammad Abdullah as saying.
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He added, “My father was a street fruit seller in Urumqi. When the pressure was almost unbearable, my parents decided to leave the country and took us to Thailand.”
China has been accused of mistreating Uyghurs. Last August, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said there was credible evidence that China had committed “serious human rights violations” against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim groups in Xinjiang, including arbitrary detention, torture, forced sterilization, and cultural and religious friction. Except, according to news reports.
Mohammad Abdullah said his father wanted a better education and life for his children. Abdullah and his family left China in late 2013 and arrived in Thailand early next year with the help of border smugglers, according to news reports. They were detained by Thai immigration authorities.
In the summer of 2015, Turkey took away nearly 170 Uyghur women and children, including Mohammad Abdullah, his mother and siblings, on humanitarian grounds. Meanwhile, Thai authorities deported more than 100 Uyghur men to China, according to VOA News. Mohammad Abdullah said his father and more than 50 adult Uighur men remained in immigration detention in Thailand.
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said Thailand’s treatment of Uighur refugees was concerning. In an interview with VOA, Robertson blamed Abdullah’s death on Thailand’s refusal to recognize the humanity of asylum seekers. He urged the international community to call on Bangkok to release all Uyghurs still detained.
“[Abdullah] A life lost because Thailand refused to recognize the humanity of an asylum seeker, a person fleeing persecution, and ultimately failed to even provide the medical care he needed,” Robertson told VOA.
“The quickest way to ensure these people’s return to life is to release them immediately as free men,” he said.
Dolkun Aisha, head of the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress (WUC), called for an investigation into Abdullah’s death. Issa called for the release of Uyghur refugees detained in Thailand and for Uyghur refugees to be allowed to resettle.
“We have been monitoring the situation closely from the beginning. The WUC has issued a report on their case and others like it,” VOA quoted Issa as saying.
“Thai authorities should conduct a full and public investigation into the death of Abdulaziz Abdullah, end the indefinite and arbitrary detention of the Uyghur refugee community, release Uyghur refugees detained in Thailand, and allow Uyghur Refugees are resettled,” Isa further said.
Abdullah had been transferred to the Bangkok center in December from another Thai detention facility, said a Uighur refugee and former roommate of Abdullah at the Bangkok immigration detention center, who did not want to be named.
According to Uyghur refugees, Abdullah started coughing and started vomiting blood. Abdullah’s former roommate said guards and the detention center’s doctor repeatedly asked him to, but failed to take him to the hospital. Police at the Bangkok immigration detention center ignored repeated pleas to help Abdullah, according to Uighur refugees.
VOA quoted the Uyghur refugee as saying: “They went into the cell and took pictures of him. He was still vomiting blood when they took pictures of him.”
“They said they would report the situation to their bosses and said they would take him to the hospital but didn’t take him away,” he further said. (Arnie)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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