Uighurs protesters assault Thai Consulate in Istanbul

They broke down the doors to the building, pulled down the sign outside and damaged the furnishings inside, television footage showed.

Nine people were arrested after more than 100 – mostly Uighur – protesters stormed the embassy overnight, throwing files into the courtyard, smashing windows and furniture, and bringing down the Thai flag.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha publicly defended the decision Thursday, even as the Thai consulate in Istanbul came under attack from raging protesters there.

Turkey has seen increased protests and isolated attacks on tourists thought to be Chinese over China’s treatment of Uighurs. Uighur Turks sent to a third country despite their own will and desire, ” the statement said.

Thai government spokesman Weerachon Sukondhapatipak told Anadolu Agency by phone on Wednesday that the Uighur had been deported “in accordance with protocol” as they had been determined by the government to have originated from China.

These recently deported Uighurs could face heavy sentences and further persecution back in China, according to Alim Seytoff, the spokesperson for the World Uyghur Congress.

“If we send them back (to China) and there is a problem that is not our fault”, said Prime Minister Prayuth, the general who led a coup against Thailand’s elected government in May 2014. “Do you want us to keep them for ages until they have children for three generations?”

The United Nations refugee agency called Thailand’s action “a flagrant violation of worldwide law”. The foreign ministry said that news of Uighurs being “banned from fasting and fulfilling other acts of worship had been received with sadness by the Turkish public”.

There are still around 50 Uighur Muslims in Thai detention, as the local authorities are trying to determine their nationalities.

A group of more than 170 Uygurs were identified as Turkish citizens and sent to Turkey, and almost 100 were identified as Chinese and sent back to the mainland.

The Thai court ruled, however, that the prolonged detention was legal, but did not say which country – Turkey or China – they would eventually be sent back to.

The move comes after worldwide condemnation of the junta’s decision to repatriate some 100 Uighur refugees late Wednesday.

China’s treatment of its Turkic language-speaking Uighur minority is a sensitive issue in Turkey and has strained bilateral ties ahead of a planned visit to Beijing in July by President Tayyip Erdogan.

Pervasive ethnic discrimination, severe religious repression, and increasing cultural suppression – which the Chinese government has sought to justify in the “fight against separatism, religious extremism, and terrorism” – have fueled rising tensions in China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.

“We believe that the worldwide community should share common responsibility for combating and preventing illegal migration”, she said.

Volker Türk, UNHCR’s assistant high commissioner for protection, said: “I strongly urge the Thai authorities to investigate this matter and appeal to Thailand to honour its fundamental global obligations”.

Several neighboring countries have also extradited Uyghurs to China in recent years. “As for those who are not suspected of committing crimes or who commit lesser offences, we will find proper ways to deal with them”. The office was closed on Thursday.