By Michael Ireland, Senior Reporter, ASSIST New Service answritermike@gmail.com
BANGKOK, THAILAND (ANS, October 9, 2015) --
Royal Thai police have arrested 26 Pakistani Christian asylum seekers,
including children, from an area called Pracha Songkhro 28 in Bangkok,
Thailand.
According to the British Pakistan Christian Association, (BPCA) www.britishpakistanichristians.org, on
Wednesday, October 6, the terrified families were arrested very late at
night from a condo called Phasuk mansion, taken to Huai Khwang police
station and from there will eventually be transferred to the Immigration
Detention Centre (IDC).
“Due to an extremely slow processing time none of these sufferingfamilies
have ever been assessed for asylum determination by the UNHCR, and in
fact many of them have assessment interviews scheduled for up to two
years from now, a dismaying and unacceptable delay which has left them
extremely vulnerable,” BPCA reported.
The
BPCA officer in Thailand, Christian Malik, called Pastor Joshua who was
amongst the victims. He described the desperate conditions they are
facing inside the IDC: "We have been in the police station since
yesterday evening and we have not yet eaten any food. The younger
children have been sobbing for milk and we have no provisions, this is
an alarming situation. We are all having to cope with the trauma of
being locked up, despite not believing we are criminals."
Pastor
Joshua spoke of their hope in God and their undying belief that God
will help them. He said: “We continue worshipping and praying, it gives
us confidence and enables us to bear witness among the non-believers. We
hope to rescue and baptize the lost souls inside the IDC."
Malik
contacted legal aid representatives at Asylum Access, an NGO working in
Thailand, to see how they could help. They explained that the system
was slow and rigid: “The immigration police undertake sweeps in asylum
communities across Bangkok during the first 10 days of every month.
There is no mechanism in place to rescue these victims -- they simply
have to go through the legal process."
Malik
also described the situation faced by arrested victims. He said:
"Children have been locked up, along with their parents, and appallingly
there is no provision of milk for babies and scarce food provision. It
is completely inhumane. Families have been taken from their makeshift
homes leaving doors wide open, which inevitably results in the loss of
all their savings and belongings. Living in cramped cells is
demoralizing, and after even a short time of being packed in with so
many other detainees contagious disease is rampant."
Wilson
Chowdhry of BPCA commented: “We are so thankful to God that working
with the Jubilee Campaign; Voice of the Persecuted; TrotB Ministries,
Farrukh Saif Foundation and Papa Thongchai of Urdu Church in the Hands
of God, we all have been able to raise the necessary funds to pay the
overstay court fines for 12 of the asylum seekers.”
Chowdhry
stated that a few of those detained declined help, deciding instead to
take a risk and endure Central Jail with the hopes of somehow raising
the necessary funds to bribe Thai police into releasing them, thus
avoiding detainment in the IDC and needing to raise funds for bail.
“Paying the overstay fine prevents a person going to Central Jail but
bail still needs to be paid at a later date to avoid further detention
in the IDC,” he said.
Chowdhry
added: “The costs of paying the fines would have been a huge burden on
any of our charities individually, but by breaking convention and
proving charities can work together, we have successfully helped the
traumatized victims.”
Lois Kanalos of Voice of the Persecuted said: "Praise God! He achieved the impossible again, leaving no doubt who is behind us."
BPCA
states that paying this fine prevents these families from being moved
for 35 days “to the horrific Central Jail where they would be placed in
the general prison population amongst rapists and murderers. The men are
restrained naked in shackles, their heads shaved, and women are made to
remove their underwear and jump up and down to show they have nothing
concealed while men ogle. Mothers are separated from their children, and
incredulously even from their babies who are then neglected and not
provided any milk or nappies (diapers).” BPCA explained that from
Central Jail the detainees would again be moved to the deplorable IDC
where 'food' consists of cucumber in hot water.
Chowdhry
concluded: “We know that our supporters will agree that this would be a
horrendous fate to befall anyone, and being able to prevent it for
these families is exhilarating for us at the BPCA, and we would love to
be able to do much more. To free each individual from IDC we need to
raise a further £1,000GBP ($1,530USD) for each of them for their bail
fees, which will entitle them to a two year protection from re-arrest.”
Main image: Pastor Joshua was among those detained. (BPCA Photo)
Other Image: Children were among those rounded up by Thai police (BPCA Photo).
Bio Image: Michael Ireland
About the Writer: Michael
Ireland is a Senior Correspondent for the ASSIST News Service, as well
as a volunteer Internet Journalist and Ordained Minister who has served
with ASSIST Ministries and ASSIST News Service since its beginning in
1989. He has reported for ANS from Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Israel,
Jordan, China, and Russia. Click http://paper.li/Michael_ASSIST/1410485204 to see a daily digest of Michael's stories for ANS.
** You may republish this and any of ANS stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net
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