Rights groups say second Uyghur dies in Thai detention

By JINTAMAS SAKSORNCHAI
Associated Press

BANGKOK (AP) — Human rights organizations are urging Thailand to improve conditions in its immigration detention facilities after a second asylum seeker from China’s Muslim Uyghur minority died in custody within two months. Human Rights Watch called for an end to Thailand’s “inhumane and counterproductive” policy of indefinitely detaining people accused of violating immigration laws. Mattohti Mattursun died last Friday of suspected liver failure shortly after being taken to a hospital weeks after falling ill. Uyghur rights groups say Mattursun fled to Thailand from China in 2014 and had been detained for more than nine years. Thailand’s Coalition for the Rights of Refugees and Stateless Persons says detainees lack adequate medical care and are confined in overcrowded and unsanitary cells.