US imposes restrictions on Thai officers for deporting Uyghurs to China

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The US has imposed visa restrictions on present and former Thai officers who have been concerned within the pressured repatriation of Uyghur Muslims, as a part of a brand new coverage to assist teams topic to torture in China.

The coverage will goal international officers who’re complicit in efforts to forcibly return ethnic or non secular minorities prone to persecution to China.

“We’re dedicated to combating China’s efforts to stress governments to forcibly return Uyghurs and different teams to China, the place they’re topic to torture and enforced disappearances,” mentioned Marco Rubio, secretary of state.

“In mild of China’s long-standing acts of genocide and crimes in opposition to humanity dedicated in opposition to Uyghurs, we name on governments around the globe to not forcibly return Uyghurs and different teams to China.”

Rubio mentioned the motion in opposition to the unnamed present and former Thai officers was a response to their involvement in forcing 40 Uyghurs to return to China in late February. Thailand is a defence treaty ally of the US however the nation is nervous about antagonising China, which is far more essential to the south-east Asian nation from a commerce perspective.

The state division didn’t specify what the visa restrictions would entail, however such measures typically consult with the denial of visas to enter the US. Rubio mentioned the measures might additionally apply to members of the family of any officers discovered to be facilitating repatriations.

The Uyghurs are a Turkic ethnic minority from the northwestern Chinese language area of Xinjiang. In 2022, the UN Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights accused Beijing of committing “severe human rights violations” in the way in which it has handled Uyghurs and different Muslim ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.

China has over time pressured greater than 1mn Uyghurs into detention camps in Xinjiang, sparking criticism from many international locations around the globe. Beijing has repeatedly denied it has persecuted the Uyghurs.

The coverage is an early indication of how President Donald Trump will reply to human rights violations involving China. On the finish of his first time period, then secretary of state Mike Pompeo accused Beijing of committing genocide. His successor in Joe Biden’s administration, Antony Blinken, later repeated the accusation.

Rubio was one of many loudest critics of China and its human rights document when he served within the US Senate, alongside Mike Waltz, a former military Inexperienced Beret and Florida congressman who’s now nationwide safety adviser.

Many China consultants imagine Trump desires to succeed in some type of wide-ranging take care of Beijing that might contain commerce and different points. One factor they’re watching out for is how the president and his officers speak about alleged human rights violations in China given the doable implications for any broader negotiations with President Xi Jinping.