A group of at least 40 Uyghur men detained in Thailand for more than a decade have been deported to China, Thai and Chinese officials said Thursday. The men made a public appeal last month to halt the deportation,

Dozens of Uyghur men detained in Thailand after fleeing China may have been secretly deported to their home country, activists and rights groups said on Thursday, warning they could face torture and imprisonment on their return.

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.

The detainees were part of a group of some 300 Uyghurs who fled China and were arrested in Thailand in 2014. Thailand deported more than 100 of them to China in 2015, drawing condemnation.

China has assured Thailand that 40 Chinese Uyghurs it returned on Thursday would be looked after, Thailand's defence minister said, confirming a secretive pre-dawn deportation that the United Nations and human rights groups condemned.

China confirmed Thailand deported 40 Chinese nationals on Thursday, despite human rights organizations and members of the U.S. government called on Bangkok to not repatriate the Uyghur Muslims.

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.

Forty-eight men have been detained in legal limbo without charge for 11 years after crossing into Thailand as they tried to escape oppression in China.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday condemned Thailand's return of at least 40 Uyghurs to China, where Washington says members of the Muslim group have faced genocide. The move by Thailand,