Thailand to Deport Over 60 Chinese Christians Despite U.N. Refugee Status

Immigration officials in Thailand said Wednesday that more than 60 members of a Chinese Christian church who were detained after obtaining U.N. refugee status will be deported next week, most likely to a third country.

Surachate Hakparn, deputy national police chief, said Thai Foreign Ministry and Immigration Bureau representatives were meeting with the UN Refugee Agency and the US Embassy to discuss the fate of the 63 members of the Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church who were taken to court in the coastal city of Pattaya last Friday.

“They will undoubtedly be deported within the next week.” “We don’t know where they’ll be deported to,” Surachate told The Associated Press.

After arriving in Thailand last year, the members of the church, also known as the Mayflower Church, were given refugee status by the United Nations. They claim they were subjected to intolerable abuse in China and are seeking asylum in the United States.

Prior to arriving in Thailand, the church members fled to South Korea’s Jeju island in October 2019 and remained for nearly three years, but decided to leave when it became obvious that their chances of finding refuge were slim.

According to an Immigration Bureau official familiar with Wednesday’s multi-agency talks, Thai officials will “find a way” to send the church members to a third country.

“In the meantime, the Immigration Bureau will continue to take care of them on humanitarian grounds,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to speak to the media.

The church members are anticipated to be released after being arrested and fined for overstaying their visas last week. They were instead transported by bus from Pattaya to a police detention centre in Bangkok for what a police officer described as routine processing.

Surachate stated that the church members had been separated, with “the mothers and children” – roughly half of the group – being sent to the Immigration Bureau’s care facility in northern Bangkok, while the others were held at the bureau’s primary detention centre in central Bangkok.

When the group was being driven to Bangkok, church members forced the buses to come to a halt because they thought they were on their way to Bangkok’s international airport for repatriation to China, where they face persecution.

Human Rights Watch released a statement on Saturday urging the Thai government not to deport the group because of the “grave dangers that Christians face in China.”

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom stated in its annual report last year that the Chinese Communist Party requires religious organizations to support its rule and political goals, including by changing their religious teachings to comply with the party’s philosophy and policy.

The commission stated that “both registered and unregistered religious groups and individuals who fall foul of the CCP face harassment, detention, arrest, imprisonment, and other abuses.”

Surachate stated that the church members had overstayed their visas by about a half year when they were discovered by authorities. He stated that they were apprehended as a consequence of a recent crackdown in response to increasing reports of crimes involving Chinese citizens.

He stated that Thailand has a policy of not allowing refugees to stay in the nation. Thailand has not ratified the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention and does not have any legislation regarding refugee status.

“In general, we will not allow them to stay in Thailand because otherwise people from all over the world would come,” Surachate explained. “See, they were in South Korea for years and never received the UNHCR paper.” They accomplished this in just four months after coming here.”

Thailand has frequently provided refuge to people fleeing war in neighbouring nations.

Not everyone, however, is allowed. Thailand deported 109 members of the Muslim Uyghur minority to China against their will in 2015, despite concerns of official persecution and torture.

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