2016-06-15
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Chu Ling (second from L), wife of Chinese asylum seeker Jiang Yefei, Gu Shuhua (far R), wife of asylum seeker Dong Guangping, and Dong's daughter Dong Xuerui (second from R) prepare to board a flight to Canada, Nov. 18, 2015.
Photo courtesy of an activist
Authorities in the southern Thai resort of Chumphon have released on bail a Chinese refugee who tried to reach Australia in a private yacht in a last-ditch bid to avoid being sent back to China.
Song Zhiyu was released from the Chumphon Detention Center on Wednesday because he had been granted formal refugee status by the United Nations in Bangkok, he told RFA.
"There was a hearing during which I was granted bail," Song said. "They said that the case against me isn't closed, and that I will have to go back when I have finished the application process for resettlement as a refugee."
"Then the case will be brought to its conclusion," he said.
Song, who has already served a five-year jail sentence in China, has fought his case on the grounds of political persecution, and holds no passport.
He was detained alongside fellow refugee Li Xiaolong, his wife Gu Qiao, and their child Li Yisheng after a yacht they chartered to sail to Australia capsized off the Thai coast in early March.
Gu Qiao, who holds no passport, is being held in an immigration detention center, and recently pleaded guilty to immigration offenses, Song said.
Li Xiaolong has already been released on bail, while another refugee who sailed with them, Zhao Wei, was never detained because he holds a valid Thai visa.
Song, who lost 20 pounds in weight during his incarceration, described overcrowded conditions inside the Chumphon Detention Center, where some 2,000 detainees are held in an area the size of a single soccer pitch.
He said the heat and overcrowding made it impossible to sleep in detention, where he has spent the past three months, fearing all along that he would be handed over to Chinese police.
He said he had been forced to wear manacles and leg irons every time he was taken to court for a hearing.
Currently in hiding
Li Xiaolong told RFA that had been prevented by "unidentified people" when trying to speak to United Nations officials at the High Commission for Refugees in Bangkok.
He said he is currently in hiding for fear of being redetained and repatriated, and has scant hope that his wife Gu Qiao will escape repatriation.
"According to Thai law, they are unlikely to release my wife, because there is only one way out of a Thai immigration detention center, and that is to leave Thailand," he said.
The couple's child Li Yisheng is being held in a Thai orphanage.
Calls to the Bangkok office of the UNHCR rang unanswered during office hours on Wednesday.
Many Chinese refugees in Thailand are now effectively on the run, constantly moving around in a bid to evade arrest and deportation on illegal immigration charges, activists have told RFA.
In November, Chinese asylum seekers Jiang Yefei and Dong Guangping, who had fled persecution in their home country, were handed back to Chinese authorities in a move that drew strong criticism from the U.N.
They are now in pretrial detention in the southwestern city of Chongqing.
While the two men were initially held on charges of "organizing illegal border crossings and illegally crossing the border," Dong's lawyer said the authorities have now formally arrested him on a subversion charge.
"I haven't had the formal arrest notification yet, and I don't know if they are charging him with both charges or just the one," lawyer Chang Boyang told RFA on Tuesday.
"I have nothing in writing yet, and I will continue to be in contact with the Chongqing authorities about this," he said.
Chang said it is likely that Jiang will also face the charge of "incitement to subvert state power," as the two men have been similarly treated throughout.
Calls to the Chongqing municipal police department rang unanswered during office hours on Tuesday.
Resettlement as refugees
Jiang's wife Chu Ling, and Dong's wife Gu Shuhua and daughter Dong Xuerui flew to Canada from Bangkok for resettlement as political refugees just days after the two men were repatriated. They now fear Jiang and Dong are now at risk of torture and other violations of their rights.
Gu Shuhua told RFA on Tuesday that the charge against her husband is "arbitrary."
"For the Chinese authorities to add another charge against Dong Guangping is purely arbitrary," she said. "Nobody foresaw this, and everyone thinks it's really strange."
She said Dong's plight was similar to that of many political dissidents in China, who are forced to flee the country illegally because they are denied passports by Beijing.
"There are a lot of politically sensitive people in China, including lawyers and their families, who can't leave because their passports have been canceled or denied," Gu Shuhua said.
"If they don't have passports, they are left to suffer years of political persecution in China, even their children," she said.
"We had no choice but to cross the border illegally into Thailand, and now he has been sent back there. I am very angry about this."
