During Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s earliest days on the job — as he was visiting Latin America and meeting with Russian officials to talk about peace in Ukraine — he was also negotiating to keep a group of Uyghur refugees in Thailand from being sent back to Xinjiang, where the American government has said China is committing genocide.
American officials in both the outgoing Biden administration and incoming Trump administration were adamant that Thailand refuse to repatriate more than 40 Uyghur refugees — and that doing so would not only place their lives at risk, but would also be a violation of Thailand’s international obligations.
If Thailand didn’t listen, it would be a personal insult to Rubio, who spent his Senate career working to help the Uyghurs, and a stunning rebuke of American influence in southeast Asia.
Then, last week — while Thailand and America were conducting joint military exercises — Thai officials flew the Uyghur men back to China.
With this defeat, some Uyghur activists are questioning if Rubio did enough, or whether his behind-the-scenes work should have been more public. Others say pressure from President Donald Trump would have made a difference, but Trump has been silent publicly on the matter.
Ultimately, it was an early test of America’s diplomatic standing abroad — Thailand is a U.S. ally — as China seeks to expand its influence. Rubio’s State Department failed that test.
“Many Uyghur friends said the U.S. government hasn’t done enough at the highest levels to stop the deportation of Uyghur detainees in Thailand,” wrote Tahir Imin, a Uyghur human rights activist. “They feel that direct pressure from Trump or Marco Rubio could have saved their lives.”
For weeks in January and February, State Department officials and human rights activists lobbied Thailand to protect the refugees. Rubio was directly involved, according to a source familiar with the effort, but he said little publicly. American allies, including Canada, also worked to convince Thailand not to repatriate the men. Lower-level diplomats answered phone calls at all hours of the night to keep up with the situation from a different time zone, according to advocates for the Uyghur men. The National Security Council was also following the situation closely, sources said. American lawmakers from both parties and both chambers of Congress publicly urged Thailand against sending the Uyghurs to China, some met with the Thai ambassador and others threatened sanctions if Thailand didn’t heed their warnings.
In a statement on Friday, a State Department spokesperson told NOTUS that “we have worked with Thailand for years to avoid this situation, including by consistently and repeatedly offering to resettle the Uyghurs in other countries, including, at times, the United States.”
The spokesperson said the United States government is still engaging with Thai officials on the matter, seeking ways to make sure the Uyghurs are safe in Xinjiang.
A department spokesperson told NOTUS several days before Thailand deported the Uyghurs that the U.S. government was “engaging with the Royal Thai Government on this matter,” and urged Thailand to “uphold its international obligations.”
Rubio answered a question about the refugees during his confirmation hearing in January, pledging he would push against a potential repatriation by Thailand — but he didn’t issue any public statements until the deportation actually happened.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms Thailand’s forced return of at least 40 Uyghurs to China, where they lack due process rights and where Uyghurs have faced persecution, forced labor, and torture,” Rubio said in a statement on February 27. “We urge all governments in countries where Uyghurs seek protection not to forcibly return ethnic Uyghurs to China.”
American lawmakers are alarmed by how ineffective U.S. diplomacy was in this situation. Thailand is geographically close to China, and it relies heavily on Chinese trade. But if the United States can’t influence an ally on a matter of genocide — what does it say about America’s standing in the world?
“I’ve engaged with a good number of officials from Southeast Asian nations, and they very much feel this sense that America is withdrawing right now,” Sen. Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat, said in an interview about Thailand’s decision. “They don’t think we are a reliable partner. And so I can certainly imagine how, with that kind of mindset, our credibility and as a result, our leverage and strength, is decreasing.”
Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine — a Democrat and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — raised the same concerns.
“You’re seeing reductions in humanitarian aid. You’re seeing reductions in military spending, at least in the Hegseth cut plans, in some parts of the world. You’re seeing the State Department announce that they’re going to be closing consular offices,” Kaine told NOTUS. “So there’s three or four bits of evidence of retreat right now, and that’s not lost on anybody.”
But ultimately, the moral responsibility falls on Thailand, he added.
“Thailand is pretty darn close in geography to China and pretty far away from the United States, so I get the reality of trying to maintain some ties with a neighbor. But sending Uyghurs back to almost certain oppression — that ain’t a good look for any nation, including Thailand,” he said. “They should do the right thing, regardless of who urges them to take action.”
Some lawmakers can’t help but feel that the Trump administration shot itself in the foot during the negotiations. While Uyghur human rights groups were trying to organize opposition to the deportation, the Trump team was separately halting congressionally approved funding for those very human rights groups.
And not only did the American government withdraw money for life-saving aid programs in Thailand during these talks, resulting in hospital closures there, but Rubio also appointed someone who has repeatedly denied abuses in Xinjiang to a senior role at the State Department, lawmakers pointed out.
“They have somebody in the State Department who basically is saying that the Uyghurs are not being persecuted by the Chinese government,” Rep. Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, told NOTUS, referring to acting undersecretary for public diplomacy Darren Beattie.
“This administration seems to have retreated almost totally from any commitment to upholding human rights,” McGovern said.
Michael Sobolik, a China policy expert at the Hudson Institute and a former Republican Hill staffer, agreed that Beattie’s appointment and the aid freeze can’t have helped America’s case.
“I’m sure there are many at the State Department who would challenge that characterization, but actions have consequences,” he said.
Julie Millsap, an American human rights activist who was in frequent contact with U.S. government officials in January and February about the repatriation, told NOTUS that when it was clear other attempts to dissuade Thailand weren’t working, she begged the White House for Trump to intervene.
“At a lower to mid-level in both the State Department and the White House and NSC, they were extremely proactive on it,” Millsap told NOTUS. But “we didn’t get the high-level intervention we needed.”
A White House spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment from NOTUS for this story.
Republicans have avoided directly criticizing the Trump administration, pointing instead to China’s might in the region.
“China exerts tremendous leverage over countries, and this is an example of a country that came into that leverage,” said Rep. John Moolenaar, who chairs the House select committee on competition with the Chinese government. “Real lives are affected by that.”
Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican who co-chairs a panel that monitors human rights in China, told NOTUS he met with the Thai ambassador in Washington, D.C. in February to talk about the refugees.
He was visibly shaken by the news of their deportation.
“It’s shocking,” he said. “They’re going back to a cruel, cruel consequence.”
This story has been updated with additional comment from the State Department.
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Haley Byrd Wilt is a reporter at NOTUS.