BANGKOK – In late February, representatives of a Thai Muslim organization brought a reassuring message to 40 Uyghur men terrified they were going to be sent back to China: The government had no immediate plans to deport them.

Less than 72 hours later, the men were on a plane bound for China’s far west Xinjiang region, where U.N. experts say they could face torture or other punishment.

Thailand decided to deport the men more than a month earlier, while denying plans to do so to the public, lawmakers and Muslim religious leaders until almost the very end, according to testimony from parliamentary inquiries, interviews, meeting notes and voice messages. That gave the detainees and their advocates no chance to make a last-ditch appeal before they were bundled off and sent back to China.

Now, the Thai government is dealing with the fallout of a move that outraged human right activists and allies. The decision is at the heart of Thai parliamentary inquiries and a diplomatic rift between Thailand and its biggest military ally. The United States has imposed sanctions on multiple Thai officials while the European Union and other allies issued condemnations.

Thai officials visited Xinjiang last week to meet some of the deported Uyghurs and said they are being treated well. They have also said the men returned voluntarily, despite evidence to the contrary.

Thailand’s dilemma

The Uyghurs are a Turkic, majority Muslim ethnicity native to Xinjiang. After decades of conflict over suppression of their cultural identity, Beijing launched a brutal crackdown on the Uyghurs that some Western governments deem a genocide.

The men deported last month were part of a larger group of Uyghurs detained in Thailand in 2014 after fleeing China. That left Thailand facing competing demands from Beijing and Washington.

Beijing said the Uyghurs were terrorists and wanted them sent back, but hasn’t presented evidence. Uyghur activists and Western officials said the men are innocent and have urged their resettlement elsewhere.

Facing potential backlash from all sides, Thailand kept the men in detention for over a decade.

That changed when Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra took office last year. Her father, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has close links to top Chinese officials.

Thai officials began secretly discussing plans to deport the Uyghurs as early as December, a month after Paetongtarn met Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the AP earlier reported.

China sent a formal request to repatriate the Uyghurs on Jan. 8, according to records of a parliamentary inquiry held after the men had been sent back and lawmaker Rangsiman Rome.

The same day, the men were asked to sign deportation papers, alarming them. They made a public appeal and went on a hunger strike, giving pause to Thai officials.

Nonetheless, on Jan. 17, the National Security Council decided behind closed doors to deport the Uyghur detainees at a meeting attended by the ministers of defense and justice, the council’s Secretary-General Chatchai Bangchuad revealed to the parliamentary investigation. Chatchai said the decision was based in part on commitments from China that the men would be treated well and that Thailand would be allowed to check on them.

Repeated denials

That’s when the denials began.

Shortly after the Jan. 17 meeting, Defense Minister Phumtham Wechayachai told reporters the government had no immediate plans for deportation.

In a Jan. 29 parliamentary inquiry, the Thai government again denied plans to deport the men, according to the records of the meeting and an interview with Thai lawmaker Kannavee Suebsang.

Thai Senator Angkhana Neelapaijit said the justice minister told her personally there were no plans to send the men to China just a week before they were deported.

The Ministry of Justice referred the AP to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment. The foreign ministry declined to comment.

In a Feb. 24 meeting, representatives of Sheikhul Islam, an official Islamic organization close to the Thai authorities, told the Uyghurs the government said they wouldn’t be sent to China, according to notes and recordings obtained by AP.

A detainee described what Sheikhul Islam told them in two recordings, one sent to an advocate and the other to a relative in Europe.

“They said they’re in touch with the government and they cannot guarantee the government won’t send us back later, but till now, they’re saying we won’t be sent back,” the detainee said. Both recordings were provided to the AP by the advocate and are two to three minutes long. The advocate asked for anonymity for themself and for the detainee to protect them from retribution.

The description of the meeting in the recordings was corroborated by notes taken by a participant and shared by an activist, as well as an interview with another person with direct knowledge of the situation. That person, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, added that at least some of the Sheikhul Islam representatives believed that the men were not about to be deported based on assurances from the government. Sheikhul Islam declined to comment.

The notes also make it clear the men did not want to go to China, contrary to the government’s claims.

“The detainees asked for a prayer for them to not be deported,” the notes said.

Three days later, in the early morning hours of Feb. 27, the men were put on trucks and driven away in the dead of night, black sheets drawn over the windows.

The next day, Prime Minister Paetongtarn confirmed to reporters that she had discussed deportation with Chinese officials during a visit to Beijing in February.

The Prime Minister’s office referred a request for comment to the “relevant parties” without saying who those parties were. The Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The backlash

In the wake of the deportation, Kannavee, Angkhana, Rangsiman and other lawmakers expressed outrage and demanded answers. The Thai parliament’s national security committee held an inquiry and called for footage of the deportation to be released.

At first, top Thai officials said there were no other countries willing to offer asylum to the Uyghurs, but the U.S. and other countries have said they made repeated offers to take the men.

In a further attempt to address the criticism, over half a dozen senior Thai officials visited Xinjiang last week at Beijing’s invitation. Select Thai media were invited, but an AP request to participate was denied.

“There is no need to worry about the Uyghurs,” government spokesperson Jirayu Houngsab said Thursday in a statement. “They are living happily with their families.”

Press releases and instructions given to media show the trip was carefully managed: The delegation met only six of the 40 men, according to a spokesperson, while media on the trip were ordered to avoid shooting images of the Uyghurs and Chinese officials, according to notes circulating among Thai reporters seen by AP. Images released from the visit blurred out almost all faces except those of Thai officials.

Their deportation also caused a diplomatic rift between Thailand and Western countries. On March 14, the U.S. State Department announced visa sanctions on an unknown number of Thai officials for their role in the deportations, while the EU parliament passed a resolution condemning the deportation.

The officials sanctioned by the U.S. were not named.

Xinjiang authorities did not respond to a faxed request for comment. During a press conference last week, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning called the U.S. sanctions “illegal.”

“China … opposes the U.S. using human rights as a pretext to manipulate Xinjiang-related issues, interfere in China’s internal affairs, and disrupt normal law enforcement cooperation,” Mao said.

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Kang reported from Beijing. Associated Press journalists David Rising in Bangkok and Didi Tang in Washington contributed to this story.