Many Uyghur men who fled persecution in China but were detained in Thailand have entered the second week of a hunger strike in Bangkok. Their hunger strike is a last-ditch effort to pressure the Thai government to halt what the detainees fear will soon be deported to China, where they face the risk of torture and imprisonment.

The men, who have been in Thai prisons for more than a decade, began their hunger strike on Jan. 10, two days after they were given “voluntary return” forms to sign, according to the accounts of two of the detainees.

They all refused to sign the forms, but had to take pictures. These instructions created fear among detainees because the incident in 2015 took place in Thailand. sudden expulsion of the other 109 Uyghurs to China.

Thai officials said there was no plan to return them, and denied that a famine was taking place.

One of the detainees secretly spoke to a journalist and activist, who shared his messages with The New York Times. The story of the second prisoner was given by a family member. Four other people familiar with the matter also confirmed the matter. The detainees have no access to anyone other than monthly visits from a doctor.

The Uyghurs are Turkic-speaking Muslims, most of whom live in China’s far western region of Xinjiang. Desperate to end the threat of discrimination, the Chinese authorities put the region under control. look hard starting in 2014. After that, they they imprisoned one million Uyghurs and others in concentration camps and prisons, they grew up contraceptive methods for Muslim women and put Muslim boarding school children.

The torture caused thousands of Uyghurs to flee. Those detained in Thailand were among more than 300 people who left China in 2014 using the Southeast Asian country as a gateway to Turkey, which has a large Uyghur population.

On Friday night, the men were still refusing food and drinking little water, according to a statement from one of the detainees sent to Arslan Hidayat, a Uyghur rights activist living in Washington, who shared the message with The. Time. The exact number of men on hunger strike is unknown.

Earlier on Friday, the prisoner said he had “good authority” for the Thais to hand over the Uyghurs to China by Monday.

In another message on January 13, the prisoner said: “We are looking for help from those who live in a free country. You all know what will happen to us if we go back to China. “

Separately, the brother of another inmate told a reporter that they had texted each other on Friday. “We have been on hunger strike for seven days. But they don’t care and they don’t answer us,” the inmate wrote in a text message seen by The Times. “This morning, we are asking to meet with the UN but they are not allowing us.”

Both those arrested and his second brother, as well as others mentioned in this article, asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation.

Thai immigration officials have done it repeatedly he refused to allow it The United Nations refugee agency can find these men, unlike other groups such as Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, according to Bryony Lau, Human Rights Watch’s deputy Asia director.

The hunger strike has raised concerns among activists about the health of the detainees. Many are malnourished, have chronic conditions such as heart and lung disease, and have limited access to medical care. Five Uyghurs have died in prison, including two children.

This month, a former Cambodian opposition politician was shooting in Bangkok during the day, causing some refugees and dissidents who have fled to Thailand to fear for their safety.

On Friday, Thailand’s Minister of Defense, Phumtham Wechayachai, said that the issue of the Uyghurs was discussed the same day at the meeting of the National Security Council in the country. He said they discussed how to use the law “strongly, and do things without causing problems in our country and other countries.”

When asked by a journalist if the Uyghur people will be deported on Monday, Phumtham, who is also the deputy prime minister of Thailand, said: “I just heard from you.

Lt. Gen. Thanit Thaiwacharamas, who is the deputy director of the immigration agency, denied that the Uyghurs are starving.

In a statement, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was “not aware” of reports that Uyghurs would be returned to China. It said that its main idea was to “stop any kind of illegal immigration.”

The plight of these prisoners has raised concerns in the United States and human rights organizations. On Wednesday, Marco Rubio, President Donald J. Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, said he would urge Thailand not to send Uyghurs back. Speaking at the Senate meeting, he said that this is “another opportunity to remind the whole world” of the persecution the Uyghurs are facing.

Angkhana Neelapaijit, a senator in Thailand, said she raised the issue of hunger with the National Security Council of Thailand. He said he is pressuring the Thai police to allow him to meet with the Uyghurs, and plans to hear from Parliament about the situation at the end of the month.

He recalled how in 2015, as head of the National Human Rights Commission in Thailand, he was blindsided by the deportation of Uyghurs in the past. The United Nations refugee agency says doing so is a “violation of international law.”

At the time, Turkish protesters occupied the Thai embassy in Istanbul, and police in the capital Ankara used pepper spray to disperse Uyghurs trying to break through a barrier outside the Chinese embassy.

The Prime Minister of Thailand at the time, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, said that China had confirmed that the Uyghurs were safe and promised to “get justice”. But a Chinese media outlet later aired pictures of the detainees hats on their heads when he boarded a plane to China.

Omer Kanat, director of the non-governmental organization Uyghur Human Rights Project, said that his organization later learned that some of those deported had been sentenced to long prison terms, but the fate of many is unknown. “They disappeared.”

Muktita Suhartono contributed reports from Bangkok, and Vivian Wang in Beijing.