Policy | 10/07/2015 – 11:30h
Beijing, 10 jul (EFE).- The Chinese Government responded today to criticism from third countries and human rights organizations regarding the deportation of one hundred Muslims of Uyghur ethnicity to China from Thailand, al defender que "no se tratan de refugiados", as the critics say, sino que son "contrabandistas".
"Algunos países y fuerzas extranjeras ignoran los hechos y hablan de esos contrabandistas ilegales como si fueran refugiados, haciendo acusaciones sin ninguna base contra la cooperación entre China y Tailandia", Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said today.
Asked at a press conference, Hua consideró que "se está politizando el asunto".
"Se trata de una cooperación normal entre ambos países para combatir la inmigración ilegal y el contrabando", defended Hua by downplaying the deportation of these citizens of the Turkmen minority in northwest China.
Thai authorities confirmed yesterday that the group of Uighurs, who was detained in Thai territory last year during his trip to Türkiye, was sent to China after three-way negotiations with Beijing and Ankara.
This provoked complaints from multiple organizations such as Human Rights Watch. (HRW), who warned that Uyghurs face persecution in China, or the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (ACNUR).
"China y Tailandia descubrieron que un grupo de chinos de una minoría étnica fueron a Tailandia a través de varios canales y se quedaron de manera ilegal. After a joint investigation, descubrimos que esas personas eran contrabandistas", Hua explained., who defended that the fight against this type of crime is part of international legislation.
Hua también comentó los ataques ocurridos en Turquía contra "tailandeses y chinos", and assured that the Chinese Government is very attentive to the actions carried out by Ankara to protect foreign citizens in that country..
La portavoz de Exteriores china consideró que todo ello se debe a "una conspiración de algunas fuerzas" to undermine China's security and stability, al tratar de "interferir en los asuntos internos" of the Asian country under the pretext of religion and ethnic affairs.
The World Uyghur Congress, an NGO based in Germany, has exposed another version of what happened by denouncing that the Uyghurs had to flee repression in China.
The Uyghur minority, a community related to peoples of Central Asia that professes the Muslim religion, lives in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, one of the current ethnic tinderboxes of China next to Tibet, where tensions between Uyghurs and authorities are common.
Beijing accuses Islamist and Uyghur independence groups of being responsible for the violence, although spokespersons for this minority in exile attribute it to discrimination ,and political and religious repression by the regime.
Uyghur groups in exile also deny the existence of terrorist groups in the region such as the East Turkestan Movement, to which Beijing has attributed the majority of attacks that occurred both in Xinjiang and in other parts of the country, although there is no evidence that the group claims them.
