Mattohti Mattursun was one among 350 Uighur refugees, together with kids, who have been detained in March 2014.
An ethnic Uighur man who was detained by Thailand in 2014 after fleeing China has died in immigration detention, the second Uighur refugee to die in Thai custody this 12 months.
Mattohti Mattursun died of suspected liver failure within the Suan Phlu Immigration Detention Centre in Bangkok on April 21, in accordance with an April 24 assertion from the World Uyghur Congress and the Uyghur Human Rights Undertaking (UHRP). He was 40 years outdated.
Mattohti, who was also referred to as Muhammad Tursun, was one among 350 Uighurs, together with kids, who have been detained as they headed in direction of Malaysia within the hope of constructing it to security in a 3rd nation in March 2014. The next 12 months, at the least 170 of them have been transferred to Turkey whereas greater than 100 have been despatched again to China, which the United Nations has mentioned could have dedicated potential “crimes against humanity” in its mass internment of principally Muslim Uighurs.
“What number of extra deaths will happen earlier than Thai authorities act with humanity to launch these harmless people who find themselves merely in search of secure haven,” UHRP Government Director Omer Kanat mentioned within the assertion. “Uyghurs all over the world are full of anguish that these refugees have been left in distress for 9 years and the world has not lifted a finger to rescue them.”
World Uyghur Congress President Dolkun Isa mentioned there have been issues in regards to the “harsh circumstances of detention, which we worry can solely result in the loss of life of all remaining detainees”.
Like many international locations in Southeast Asia, Thailand isn’t a celebration to the 1951 UN Refugee Conference, leaving asylum seekers susceptible to arrest and detention as “illegal migrants“.
The Uighur teams’ mentioned Mattohti was despatched to hospital final Friday after weeks of extreme abdomen ache and vomiting in addition to growing jaundice. He died shortly after he was admitted.
Thailand has but to formally verify his loss of life.
In February, 49-year-old Aziz Abdullah died of pneumonia after additionally spending 9 years in detention.
“Thai authorities are placing individuals in danger by conserving them for years in terrible circumstances in immigration detention facilities,” Human Rights Watch’s Asia Director Elaine Pearson mentioned in a press release.
“Mattohti Mattursun’s loss of life ought to sound the alarm to finish this abusive coverage of incarcerating asylum seekers and refugees for extended intervals.”
