Uighur escape pressures cops

By SOMCHAI SAMART, 
SURIYA PATATAYO 
THE NATION 

 

 

Six officers transferred following dramatic break-out of 20 detainees from Songkhla immigration facility.

 

AN URGENT order was issued yesterday to transfer six senior Immigration police in Songkhla province following the dramatic escape of 20 Uighurs from a border detention centre.

 

The six officers, including a commander and his deputies, will also face an investigation as to whether they failed in their duties that led to the 3am escape yesterday. They were immediately transferred to their regional headquarters.

 

Officials inspect a hole in the wall of the building used to detain Uighurs at the Songkhla Immigration Office |yesterday. Twenty Uighurs escaped through the hole, climbing down a blanket that became tangled in barbed wire.

 

 The Uighurs made a hole in their cell wall and tied blankets together as a rope to climb down and get away, while five of their elderly fellow detainees were left behind.

 

Meanwhile, a senior Muslim expert said the escape of the group from the border detention centre in Sadao district yesterday would bode well for both Thailand and the escapees. 

 

 

 Wisut bin Lateh, director of the Southern Coordination Centre’s Chularajamontri office, said the escape would certainly help Thailand avoid Chinese pressure to deport the Uighurs back to the country, from which they previously had escaped.

 

The escapees, meanwhile, could have the chance to reunite with their families that are living in a third country, Witsut said.

 

Thailand is a key destination for ethnic Uighurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority originating in western China’s Xinjiang province. The Chinese government has blamed much of the unrest in its Xinjiang province on the ethnic group while it routinely denies repressing them.

 

Hundreds of Uighurs have sneaked out of Xinjiang to Southeast Asia in an attempt to reach Turkey, which hosts a large Uighur population.

 

Thailand has had a dilemma about whether it should free the Uighurs, following Bejing’s demands that they be deported to China.

The fleeing 20 Uighurs were part of the remaining group out of more than 300 who were arrested and detained in Thailand in 2014.

 

About 109 of them were deported to China under pressure from the Chinese government in July 2015, an incident that sparked international condemnation of Thailand amid concerns that they could face torture at the hands of Chinese authorities. 

 

 

Thailand had argued that China claimed the Uighurs were militants but sent others to Turkey after finding that they did not have links to militant groups.

 

Earlier, relatives of the detained Uighurs called on the Thai government to allow them to travel to Turkey, saying they were not victims of human trafficking but were fleeing repression in China to join their families.

 

Wisut said the Uighur men had escaped to join their wives and children.

 

The Muslim community in Thailand, he said, had been calling on the Thai government to not repatriate the Uighurs to China, but instead to allow them to move to third countries, especially Turkey.

 

 

The Uighurs had been kept in small detention rooms for years and should be allowed to be resettled elsewhere on humanitarian grounds, he said.

 

Police deputy commissioner-general Pol General Srivara Ransibrahmanakul earlier set up a committee to investigate police officers at the Sadao district immigration office in Songkhla 

 

 following the escape of the 20 Uighur inmates.

 

 

Srivara said the officers in charge of the detention centre had to face an investigation amid suspicions they had been derelict in their duty.

 

Srivara said he had been informed that the Uighurs used equipment found in the detention room to break a hole in the wall.

 

He said he had instructed the Immigration Bureau to coordinate with Provincial Police Bureau 9 to try to hunt down the escapees.

Checkpoints would be set up in the manhunt, he said.

 

Meanwhile, Immigration police commissioner Pol Lt-General Suthipong Wongpin said security had been tightened at detention centres holding other Uighurs to prevent another escape.

 

Suthipong added that he had received reports that the 20 fugitives had escaped to forests along the border with Malaysia.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30332103

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-11-21

I wish the escapees best of luck. I don't normally say that about people who break out of jail.

I would be going after the contractor who built the place.

Bust out or face to prospect of having a organs harvested. 

See ya!

surely the headline can't be true, because the BIBs are numb to pressure from anything.

Got to be the thinnest wall of a jail cell ever. Bet the CCTV footage will be good, no wait, what CCTV  footage !

Run  Uighur's Run

regards worgeordie

The hole in the wall looks like it was sawed out with a power tool, using electric power and a lot of noise?

Look at the rounded corners, if the police were going to let them out they could have been a bit more subtle....

Edited November 21, 20178 yr by AlQaholic

"Shawshank Detention"

 

 

They made a neater hole than many builders I have seen.

No special mening about this.

"The escapees are criminal and have to be hunt down"

You not sit in jail for noting not even Thailand.

These are political prisoners. Best of luck on the way to freedom in the free worldwide becaus being send and going back to communist China means death 

Ah! So this holding facility was poorly made using sub-par building materials? Sorry, tell me again how corruption is okay as a business model as long as it's part of the 'culture'?

 

I'm just imaging one of the detainees tripped and hit into the wall. Then suddenly realised the wall is made of paper mache. 

25 minutes ago, AlQaholic said:

The hole in the wall looks like it was sawed out with a power tool, using electric power and a lot of noise?

Look at the rounded corners, if the police were going to let them out they could have been a bit more subtle....

 

7 minutes ago, smew said:

These are political prisoners. Best of luck on the way to freedom in the free worldwide becaus being send and going back to communist China means death 

I´m not thinking in same way as you.

Uighur muslim is not political prisoners they are more guilty end you think.

Edited November 21, 20178 yr by beowolf2012

4 minutes ago, beowolf2012 said:

 

I´m not thinking in same way as you.

Uighur muslim is not political prisoners yjry are more guilty end you think.

I think you should have stopped writing at I'm not thinking every thing after that  is gibberish

What can this country be good at that even prisoners also could not be properly secured? 

Uighur are not causing any problem in Thailand. They are transiting here to immigrate to another country.  Chinese illegally detaining them with the help of Thai authorities. They are happy to immigrate to Turkey.

 

They have lot of sad stories in China, they afraid that they will be killed if they are deported to China. China is occupying their land and evicting them to build highways, and factories. Also China is moving lot of mainland population to take over their lands and destroying the culture.  The major problem is China is detaining, prosecuting them for no reasons. I hope UN could help them to register in Thailand move to another country.

 

Xinjiang is another Tibet.

And in same way. If you live your life with violence the violence also will come to them.

8 minutes ago, greatwhitenorth said:

I think you should have stopped writing at I'm not thinking every thing after that  is gibberish

I come from Denmark and my English writing is not so well, but i mean the Uighur muslim is not the good people at all.

2 minutes ago, beowolf2012 said:

I come from Denmark and my English writing is not so well, but i mean the Uighur muslim is not the good people at all.

all 11,300,000 of the uighers that live in china are not good people?  what do they do that offends you beside being muslim?

9 hours ago, wvavin said:

What can this country be good at that even prisoners also could not be properly secured? 

Who knows.

I just stay in peace with my Thai lady and children.

Majority of Uighurs are good and law abiding people after  WW2 China took over East Turkmenistan and Tibet and made their populations slaves  to the Chinese culture and their commie system. These are the peoples that seek freedom like you and have and I enjoy every single day., I been to Tibet and seen what the Chinese invasion done there. Chinese junk invaded our stores just as they invaded Tibet and east Turkmenistan. Be free uighurs ! ! 

9 hours ago, greatwhitenorth said:

all 11,300,000 of the uighers that live in china are not good people?  what do they do that offends you beside being muslim?

you said it by you self. I do not like muslim, because they not like people there not are muslim.... You got it!!!!

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand has had a dilemma about whether it should free the Uighurs, following Bejing’s demands that they be deported to China.

Where’s the dilemma?

 

The Uighurs want to go to Turkey. 

 

Turkey is happy to accept them. 

 

No dilemma at all. 

9 hours ago, beowolf2012 said:

No special mening about this.

"The escapees are criminal and have to be hunt down"

You not sit in jail for noting not even Thailand.

You’re wrong there. 

 

Refugees fleeing persecution are not criminals. 

16 minutes ago, NextStationBangkok said:

Uighur are not causing any problem in Thailand. They are transiting here to immigrate to another country.  Chinese illegally detaining them with the help of Thai authorities. They are happy to immigrate to Turkey.

 

They have lot of sad stories in China, they afraid that they will be killed if they are deported to China. China is occupying their land and evicting them to build highways, and factories. Also China is moving lot of mainland population to take over their lands and destroying the culture.  The major problem is China is detaining, prosecuting them for no reasons. I hope UN could help them to register in Thailand move to another country.

 

Xinjiang is another Tibet.

BRAVO, world needs more people that are and think like you ! 

29 minutes ago, beowolf2012 said:

 

I´m not thinking in same way as you.

Uighur muslim is not political prisoners they are more guilty end you think.

No, again you are wrong. 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

The Uighurs had been kept in small detention rooms for years and should be allowed to be resettled elsewhere on humanitarian grounds, he said.

Hope they find peace far from the Thai "justice system"

9 hours ago, beowolf2012 said:

I come from Denmark and my English writing is not so well, but i mean the Uighur muslim is not the good people at all.

We know what you meant. 

9 hours ago, beowolf2012 said:

you said it by you self. I do not like muslim, because they not like people there not are muslim.... You got it!!!!

Nope.