Lawyer pushes for release of Uighur family

17 Muslim migrants held since last March

A lawyer has lodged a complaint with the Southern Bangkok Criminal Court over the prolonged detention of 17 Muslim migrants.

Worasit Piriyawiboon, lawyer of the Teklimakan family who have been held since March 23 last year, has pleaded with the court to rule the detention as unlawful under the Immigration Act’s Article 20.

By law, the lawyer said, the authorities can detain immigrants only if necessary for 48 hours. Detention can be extended, but not for more than seven days.

If needed, a 12-day detention extension can be endorsed by a court order.

The lawyer filed a complaint to the Administrative Court on Jan 20 but the court replied on Feb 16 that it wasn’t in its jurisdiction and suggested the lawyer file a complaint with the Criminal Court.

The group of 17 are thought to be Uighurs from China’s Xinjiang region.

The migrants, who have been detained at the Immigration Bureau at Suan Plu, include three sisters, the husband of one of the sisters, and their children.

One of the sisters delivered a baby while in detention on April 26 last year.

The group’s long detention period stems from complications in determining their identities.

After being arrested at the Aranyaprathet checkpoint, t he Turkish embassy in Bangkok issued passports for the family in June, replacing the lost travel documents previously issued by its embassy in Vietnam.

Mr Worasit said the Criminal Court will summon the commander of the immigration bureau to testify on March 24.

On the same day, the court will also summon the husband from the migrant group, who will represent the family.

According to documents from National Security Council ( NSC) meetings obtained by the Bangkok Post yesterday, the Teklimakan family was among 459 Uighurs caught trying to cross the border into Thailand in October, 2013.

China sent officials to obtain fingerprint samples and interview the group held at detention centres in Bangkok and Songkhla, to verify whether the migrants are suspected terrorists.

However, more than 100 migrants managed to escape from temporary shelters during the process.

The Chinese embassy has asked Thailand to provide the migrants’ biodata, fingerprints, and photographs for identity verification.

According to the NSC documents, the identity of 126 of the remaining 303 migrants matched with photos of citizens in Xinjiang, but only 67 of the migrants’ fingerprints matched those in Chinese documents, raising concerns of faked identities.

The NSC documents said they were therefore deportees-in-waiting.