KUALA LUMPUR: Human Rights Watch on Monday denounced the Malaysian government for forcibly returning six ethnic Uighur asylum seekers to China, saying they face an "uncertain fate".
The New York-based group said their deportation in December was a grave violation of international law and demanded Malaysia ensure it does not happen again.
"While Malaysians were celebrating the New Year, their government was forcibly returning Uighur asylum seekers to a dangerously uncertain fate in China," deputy Asia director Phil Robertson said in a statement.
HRW, which has written to Prime Minister Najib Razak outlining its concerns, said credible sources had reported that the six men had been detained earlier in 2012 for attempting to leave Malaysia on fake passports.
The group said Malaysian police "clandestinely" transferred them into the custody of Chinese authorities, who escorted them from Malaysia to China on a chartered flight.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) expressed regret over the return of the asylum seekers to China, saying "we tried hard to prevent these Uighurs from being deported to China."
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees spokeswoman Yante Ismail said the agency had registered the men and was seeking their freedom. Their asylum claims were being assessed by the UNHCR.
"We regret that despite our representations to the Malaysian government, this group had been deported to a country where their human rights might be at risk," she said in a statement to AFP.
In 2011, Malaysia deported 11 Uighurs but defended the move by saying the Chinese nationals were involved in a human-smuggling syndicate.
A Uighur forcibly returned to China by Malaysia in that year was sentenced to six years in prison on charges of "separatism", HRW said.
Many Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking and predominantly Muslim minority in China's remote northwestern Xinjiang region, allege decades of political and religious repression by China.
Their anger -- and China's resulting tight security in the region -- has triggered sporadic bouts of unrest. (AFP)