Lt. Gen. Thanit Thaiwacharamas, the acting deputy commander of the immigration bureau, denied that the Uyghurs were on a hunger strike.
In a statement, China’s Foreign Ministry said it “was not aware” of reports that the Uyghurs could be sent back to China. It added that its basic stance was a firm “crackdown on any form of illegal immigration.”
The detainees’ plight has raised concerns in the United States and in the human rights community. On Wednesday, Marco Rubio, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick for secretary of state, said he would lobby Thailand to not send the Uyghurs back. Speaking in a Senate hearing, he added that the situation was “one more opportunity for us to remind the world” about the persecution that Uyghurs face.
Angkhana Neelapaijit, a senator in Thailand, said she had raised the issue of the hunger strike with Thailand’s National Security Council. She said she was pressing the Thai police to allow her to meet with the Uyghurs, and plans to hold a hearing in Parliament about their situation at the end of the month.
She recalled how in 2015, as head of Thailand’s National Human Rights Commission, she was blindsided by the previous deportation of Uyghurs. The United Nations refugee agency has called that move “a flagrant violation of international law.”
