Thai authorities have denied any immediate plan to send 48 Uyghur refugees back to China after UN experts urged a stop. Rights groups accuse Beijing of widespread abuses of Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim minority in China.

Thailand has denied plans to deport 48 Uyghur men to China after UN experts warned of torture risks. The men have reportedly been detained since 2014 after fleeing China’s Xinjiang province. Human rights groups and Thai senators are urging the government to avoid deportation and ensure proper handling of the case amid growing international concerns.

Thai authorities denied Wednesday there was an immediate plan to send back to China 48 Uyghurs held in the country's detention centres.

The AP’s vast network of sources and collaborative reporting led to the first report on detained Uyghurs in Thailand who face deportation and persecution

In this photo provided on condition of anonymity, Uyghur detainees who say they are facing deportation back to China, where they fear persecution and even death, sit in an immigration detention center in Bangkok, Thailand, in February 2024.

The family was detained in Thailand in 2014 after fleeing increasing repression in their hometown in China's Xinjiang province. She and the children were allowed to leave Thailand a year later. But her husband remained in detention,