Thailand's deportation of 40 Uyghurs to China last week was in the Southeast Asian country's best interest due to the possibility of retaliation from Beijing if the group was sent elsewhere, a Thai minister said on Thursday.

Thai minister claims the possibility of retaliation from Beijing if the Uyghur refugees are sent to another country.

The Chinese embassy in Thailand has confirmed that a group of Uyghur men detained in Thailand for more than a decade have been deported to China.

Canada and the United States offered to resettle 48 ethnic Uyghurs held in detention in Thailand over the past decade, sources told Reuters, but Bangkok took no action for fear of upsetting China, where they were covertly deported last week.

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.

The U.S. Embassy in Thailand this week advised U.S. citizens to “exercise increased caution and vigilance” following Thailand’s recent deportation of asylum-seekers to China.

Thailand acted in accordance with human rights when it sent 40 Uyghurs back to China last week, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra told reporters on Monday.

Resettling the Uighurs would not shield Thailand from a potential fallout with China, the minister said. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Thai human rights advocates on Tuesday voiced their disapproval regarding the government's decision to deport 40 Uyghurs back to China, asserting that the United Nations should consider expelling Thailand from its Human Rights Council,