BANGKOK: Thai police on Wednesday said ethnic Uighur Muslims from China who escaped an immigration detention centre will not be deported — if they are all recaptured — despite a request by Beijing.

The dramatic pre-dawn jailbreak on Monday saw a group of 25 Uighurs use blankets to climb out of their cell in southern Thailand.

Five of them were arrested on Monday while one more was detained on Wednesday, Thai police said, with media reporting the escapee was found over the border in Malaysia.

The group were among hundreds of Uighurs, a Muslim minority that faces repression in western China, detained in 2014 in Thailand, sparking a tussle over their citizenship.

Uighurs intercepted in Thailand often say they are Turkish as Turkey shares ethnic links with them.

In 2015 Thailand forcibly deported 100 Uighurs to China.

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2017