China: Fleeing Uighurs planning to join jihad

China’s government has alleged that more than 100 minority Muslim Uighurs who were sent back by Thailand after fleeing China were on their way to fight in the Middle East and that some were implicated in terrorist activities at home.

Thailand has been harshly criticised by the UN, the European Union and human rights groups for repatriating the 109 Uighurs back to China, where activists say they face persecution, instead of sending them to Turkey, which has accepted other Uighurs.

The Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority in China’s far western region of Xinjiang, have complained of harsh cultural and religious suppression as well as economic marginalisation under Chinese rule.

Beijing has accused Uighur separatists of terrorism in Xinjiang, where ethnic violence has left hundreds of people dead.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency, citing the Ministry of Public Security, said that the 109 “illegal immigrants” had been on their way “to join jihad” in Turkey, Syria or Iraq, and that 13 of them had fled China after being implicated in terrorist activities. Another two had escaped detention, according to Xinhua.

The report also claimed a Chinese police investigation had uncovered several gangs recruiting people for jihad, and that Turkish diplomats in some south-east Asian countries had facilitated the illegal movement of people.