A China Southern Airlines plane took off from Don Mueang Airport at 4:48 a.m., with a destination marked “unspecified” on the Flightradar24 system and landed at Kashgar Airport, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, about six hours later. In Bangkok, the petition was dismissed.

"Similar deportations have prompted violent retaliatory attacks in the past," a security alert posted on the embassy website said. "Most notably, in the wake of a 2015 deportation of Uyghurs from Thailand,

Rights advocates had said the Uyghurs, a persecuted Muslim minority in China, were “at real risk” of torture, imprisonment or even death if they were returned.

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.

Thailand should be commended for its handling of its return of 40 Uyghur Muslims to China, a deputy premier said on Friday, as his country endured a torrent of international condemnation over its secretive deportation.

The U.S. Embassy in Bangkok is warning Americans of potential "violent retaliatory attacks" after a group of Uyghurs were deported by Thailand to China.

The secret deportation by Thailand of dozens of Uyghur men to China that has sparked international condemnation is a diplomatic win for Beijing and a snub to the United States and the United Nations,