Today, under the cover of night, Cambodia has furtively extradited twenty Uyghurs from a military airbase in Phnom Penh to China in a fateful decision that not only undermines the  United Nations but which should be expected to end in executions

Below is an article published by UNPO:

Despite protests from the international community, Cambodia has extradited twenty Uyghurs to China this evening.  Their departure from Phnom Penh marks the end of hopes that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) would be permitted to finish its investigations into their cases.

UNPO Secretary General, Marino Busdachin, condemned the decision by the Cambodian Interior Ministry, stating that it "ends any hope we might have had that their cases could be dealt with fairly...the manner of their deportation is beyond shameful - we must now expect to enter the new year with more Uyghur executions."

Mr. Busdachin's comments echoed those of Mr. Wayne Marston MP, member of the Canadian House of Commons' Subcommittee on Human Rights who in supporting UNPO's initial calls to halt the extraditions noted that "China is well known to be a country which regularly exercises the death penalty, this [extradition] then clearly puts these Uyghurs at the severe risk of execution."

Senator Marco Perduca of the Senate of the Republic of Italy said that to "throw them into the jaws of a judicial system that is acknowledged to be partial, which still supports the death penalty, and which has already led to the execution of at least eight Uyghurs in recent months after seriously flawed trials."

These fears have now been realised.  UNPO condemns in the strongest terms the decision of Phnom Penh to extradite twenty Uyghurs that had entered Cambodia in an effort to escape discriminatory policies in East Turkestan.  The decision threatens Cambodia's moral standing in a region with few examples of good governance and respect for human rights, and it critically undermines the United Nations and in particular the UNHCR.

Therefore, while drawing no encouragement from past trials, UNPO nevertheless urges the Chinese authorities to ensure that the extradited Uyghurs are treated fairly, that their human rights are respected, and should their cases be taken to court, that international observers are permitted entry to their trials.