According to China's embassy in Bangkok, the group has been sent to the Xinjiang province in northwestern China with a chartered plane.
The UN, human rights organizations, lawyers, and the men themselves have until the last minute tried to stop the deportation. Last month, they appealed to avoid being expelled to China, where they are likely to be imprisoned.
China has been accused for years of widespread violations against the Muslim minority, the Uyghurs. According to several investigations and research reports, hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs have been placed in internment camps in Xinjiang, where testimonies of torture, forced labor, sexual abuse, and aggressive indoctrination are numerous.
The men who have now been deported from Thailand were part of a group of 300 Uyghurs who fled China in 2014. Over 100 of them were sent back already the following year, while another group of 173 Uyghurs was sent to Turkey.
