"In March this year there were raids all over and a heavy crackdown by the Police. Some are kept in the central jail, and if the fine is paid, then they are sent to the immigration detention centre."
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| File photo: Christian refugees arrested in Thailand |
Source/Credit: Christian Post | Word
By Stoyan Zaimov | December 17, 2015
Over 3,000 Pakistani Christian refugees are reportedly stranded in Thailand waiting for the United Nations to help, while hundreds, including children, have been detained and are being kept in deplorable conditions.
Godfrey Yogarajah, the Executive Director of the World Evangelical Alliance's Religious Liberty Commission, told The Christian Post on Thursday that the stranded refugees, who have fled religious persecution in Pakistan, are in urgent need of food, shelter, and medical attention.
"Children are taken away and detained separately away from their parents even very young kids. Children are defined as under 15 by them. Right now 134 people are at the IDC and 35 in the central jail. There are right now around 8 children too detained. Those over 15 are not counted in this as they are considered adults by the authorities," Yogarajah told CP.
"Conditions are very bad at both the IDC and the jail. Food is two bowls of soup rice a day. Water is bad. No toiletries," he added.
Yogarajah explained that most Pakistani Christian refugees have been in Thailand for three to four years, and have been waiting for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to hear their cases and act on their applications for asylum. They face exceptionally long wait times, however, with many having to wait at least three years or more for an appointment.
"Many of them who over stay their visas are arrested and detained even though they may have the UNHCR document. In March this year there were raids all over and a heavy crackdown by the Police. Some are kept in the central jail, and if the fine is paid, then they are sent to the immigration detention centre," Yogarajah added.
He revealed that the desperate situation is also forcing many teenage Pakistani girls to resort to acting in pornographic movies, and are also involved in commercial sex.
What is more, there are almost no educational opportunities at all for children, while the few refugee schooling programs run by non-government organizations also cost money.
The Religious Liberty Commission's Executive Director noted that local churches and NGOs are able to provide limited assistance, but of the 3,000 to 4,000 or so Christian refugees, only about 500 get any assistance.
Fox News has also documented the plight of Thailand's Christian refugees, noting that many of them face poverty, arrest, and possible deportation.
It noted in an article in August that Thailand is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol, which means that Pakistani Christians are treated as illegal immigrants rather than as refugees or asylum seekers.
Persecution watchdog groups, such as Human Rights Watch, have noted that Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws, which often target Christians, have been the source of so much violence against religious minorities that the people are often forced to leave.
Beside the blasphemy laws and Islamic extremist violence, Christians in Pakistan also often suffer from city laws, such as Islamabad's Capital Development Authority initiative, which is threatening to evict thousands of poor Christian families from slums on government-owned land.
Groups such as the British Pakistani Christian Association have also started petitions asking the Thai government to stop oppressing refugees and asylum seekers, urging it to treat the people humanely.
"Reports from the ground indicate that, effectively denied healthcare, severely ill brothers and sisters in Christ are writhing in pain. The high stress results in heart attacks and strokes, with no real treatment available, and what is available is prohibitively expensive," the petition states.
It also shares of one case where a Pakistani Christian father arrived at a health centre looking to sell his kidney in order to buy treatment for his sick daughter.
Yogarajah noted that there are a whole range of complex issues surrounding the refugee crisis in Thailand, with some of the individuals and NGO's accused of corruption for tipping off authorities on where the refugees live. This then allows them to flash the news internationally and raise money, but he said only a fraction of it reaches the beneficiary.
"Sadly the entire world's attention is on the Syrian refugee crisis, while north Africa has a larger refugee population and more people have been killed there. Asia is the other region with a huge refugee and IDP population," he added.
Thailand is a heavily Buddhist country, according to 2010 statistics, with Christians making up only 1.2 percent of the population.
UNHCR 2015 statistics reveal that there are over 614,000 people in the country who are in one form of refugee status, statelessness, or are asylum-seekers.
Read original post here: Pakistani Christian Refugees, Children Jailed in Deplorable Conditions, Waiting for UN to Act
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