Canada and U.S. offered Uyghurs in Thailand asylum before deportation to China, sources say

Open this photo in gallery: Police enter an immigration detention centre in Bangkok, Thailand, on Jan. 22.CHANAKARN LAOSARAKHAM/AFP/Getty Images Canada and the United States offered to resettle 48 ethnic Uyghurs held in detention in Thailand over the past decade, sources told Reuters, but Bangkok took no action for fear of upsetting China, where they were covertly deported last week. Thailand has defended the deportation, which came despite calls from United Nations human rights experts, saying that it acted in accordance to laws and human rights obligations. Human rights groups accuse China of widespread abuses of Uyghurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic…