Twenty Chinese Uighurs Use Blankets to Escape Thai Cell

Asylum seekers sit before boarding trucks as Thai Immigration officials escort them to a court in Songkhla, southern Thailand on March 15, 2014. Thailand on March 15 sentenced dozens of asylum seekers thought to be from China's Uighur minority for illegal entry, an official said, despite a US appeal for their protection. Tuwaedaniya MERINGING/AFP/Getty Images

BANGKOK–Twenty ethnic Uighur Muslims from China broke out of a detention center near the Thai-Malaysia border, Thai officials said on Monday, after digging holes in the wall and using blankets as ladders.

The 20 were part of the last remaining group of more than 200 Uighurs who were detained in 2014.