Seven undocumented ethnic Uighurs escaped detention in Thailand after their cell door was accidentally left unlocked, officials told dpa Wednesday.
The Uighurs or Uyghurs, are a Turkic ethnicity who live in East and Central Asia, today.
They live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China, where they are one of 55 officially recognised ethnic minorities.
Uighurs primarily practice Islam.The detainees escaped from the detention centre in the North-Eastern province of Mukdahan on Tuesday after they asked an officer to fetch their confiscated belongings.
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“The officer came into their cell and left the door unlocked. The officer’s carelessness was to blame,’’ Gomen Supap, head of Mukdahan immigration, said.
He added that one of the seven detainees was recaptured, while the rest were being searched for. The escape came just over a year after 20 Uighurs broke out of an immigration detention centre in Southern Thailand by using their blankets as a ladder.
Many Uighurs, a Muslim ethnic group from Central Asia, have fled a government crackdown and detention in Western China to Thailand, only to find themselves in detention there.
In 2015, the Thai government forcibly sent 100 Uighurs back to China in spite of protests from rights groups.
Thailand does not recognise the status of refugees or asylum seekers, who are generally treated as illegal immigrants and incarcerated.
The South-East Asian country often deports them back to their native countries where they can face prosecution
There are approximately 3,000 people of various nationalities currently being held at immigration detention centres across Thailand amid an ongoing crackdown on foreigners overstaying their visas and committing crimes. (NAN)