The 40 men were sent back to Xinjiang after being detained in Thailand for over a decade The Trump administration on Thursday condemned Thailand's return of at least 40 Uygurs to China, urging other nations not to forcibly send Uygurs seeking protection back to China and calling on Chinese authorities to provide regular access to those who have already been returned.

Authorities in Thailand on Thursday deported dozens of Uyghur men to China, despite vehement public objections and weeks of behind-the-scenes diplomacy from the U.S. The men had been in Thai detention for more than a decade after fleeing China’s Xinjiang region,

Dozens of Uyghur men detained in Thailand after fleeing China may have been secretly deported to their home country, activists and rights groups said on Thursday, warning they could face torture and imprisonment on their return.

Thai lawmakers, activists, and lawyers believe a group of Uyghur men detained in Thailand for more than a decade may have been deported to China early Thursday after trucks with covered windows were seen leaving a detention center and China said Chinese citizens had been repatriated from the Southeast Asian country.

Human rights groups warned that the Uyghurs, who were held in Bangkok for more than a decade, will face mistreatment from Chinese authorities back in Xinjiang.

The detainees were part of a group of some 300 Uyghurs who fled China and were arrested in Thailand in 2014. Thailand deported more than 100 of them to China in 2015, drawing condemnation.

China confirmed Thailand deported 40 Chinese nationals on Thursday, despite human rights organizations and members of the U.S. government called on Bangkok to not repatriate the Uyghur Muslims.

Rights groups criticized the Thai government for sending the Uyghurs, a persecuted Muslim minority, back to China, where they face the risk of torture and imprisonment.

China has assured Thailand that 40 Chinese Uyghurs it returned on Thursday would be looked after, Thailand's defence minister said, confirming a secretive pre-dawn deportation that the United Nations and human rights groups condemned.