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.