Thai authorities are continuing to place refugees and asylum seekers at risk of torture by forcibly returning them to China, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, and other countries with well-documented records of torturing dissidents.
In doing so, Thailand is violating the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which it ratified in 2007. The convention prohibits governments from expelling or returning anyone to a country where they risk being tortured. The UN Committee against Torture, the international expert body that reviews state compliance with the convention, will meet this week to review Thailand’s record. Among other issues, it should press the government on its violations of these legal obligations.
In May, Human Rights Watch reported that, over the previous decade, Thai authorities have helped other countries undertake unlawful actions against their nationals seeking protection in Thailand. As a result, Thailand has become increasingly unsafe for human rights defenders, dissidents, and members of minority communities fleeing persecution.
Thai authorities recently arrested and are set to extradite prominent Montagnard activist and refugee Y Quynh Bdap, who faces risks of torture and other ill-treatment by Vietnamese authorities if returned. Over 40 Uyghur Muslims also remain in detention in Thailand, and are at risk of deportation to China, where they could face torture, arbitrary detention, and execution. And Thai authorities have pushed back Myanmar refugees at the border, despite consistent reports of torture and ill-treatment by the Myanmar military.
The committee should remind Thailand of its commitments under the 2021 Convention report that “[w]hile not party to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, Thailand respects the principle of non-refoulement and has worked systematically with all sectors in the country to protect those who fled conflict and those who sought asylum, in accordance with applicable international standards.”
In addition, the committee should ask Thailand why officials have disregarded Thailand’s 2023 Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act, which prohibits deportation “where there are substantial grounds for believing the person would be in danger of torture, cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or enforced disappearance.”
That the Committee against Torture asks these questions is important; that Thailand answers them is essential. The Thai government cannot keep pretending to be following the law when it is not.
