Uighur refugee dies after nine years in detention in Thailand

Mattohti Mattursun was one of 350 Uyghur refugees, including children, detained in March 2014.

An ethnic Uyghur man detained by Thailand in 2014 after fleeing China has died in immigration detention, the second Uyghur refugee to die in Thai custody this year.

Mattohti Mattursun died on April 21 at the Suan Phlu Immigration Detention Center in Bangkok from suspected liver failure, according to an April 24 statement from the World Uyghur Congress and the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP). He was 40 years old.

Mattohti, also known as Muhammad Tursun, was one of 350 Uyghurs, including children, who were detained on their way to Malaysia in the hope of reaching safety in a third country in March 2014. of them were transferred to Turkey, while more than 100 were returned to China, which the United Nations says may have committed “crimes against humanity” during its mass internment of mostly Muslim Uyghurs.

“How many more deaths will there be before the Thai authorities act humanely to release these innocent people who are just seeking a safe haven,” UHRP director Omer Kanat said in the statement. “Uyghurs around the world are filled with fear that these refugees have been left in misery for nine years and that the world has not lifted a finger to save them.”

Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress, said there were concerns about the “harsh detention conditions, which we fear can only lead to the death of all remaining detainees”.

Like many countries in Southeast Asia, Thailand is not a party to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, making asylum seekers vulnerable to arrest and detention as “illegal migrants”.

The Uyghur groups said Mattohti was sent to hospital last Friday after weeks of severe abdominal pain and vomiting and developing jaundice. He died shortly after being admitted.

Thailand has yet to officially confirm his death.

In February, 49-year-old Aziz Abdullah died of pneumonia, having also spent nine years in detention.

“Thai authorities endanger people by detaining them in appalling conditions for years in detention centers for immigrants,” Human Rights Watch’s Asia director Elaine Pearson said in a statement.

“The death of Mattohti Mattursun should sound the alarm for an end to this abusive policy of detaining asylum seekers and refugees for long periods of time.”