ICC Note:

In an investigative report, the BBC has brought to light the suffering of Pakistani Christian asylum seekers in Thailand. It is estimated that over 10,000 Pakistani Christians have fled their homeland due to religious persecution and have taken shelter in Thailand. Although registered as refugees by the U.N., Thai authorities routinely arrest hundreds of Pakistani Christians for illegal immigration and place them in detention centers or jails where conditions are terrible. The U.N. has provided little help to these Christians and it seems that the international community must step in to see that these persecuted Christian refugees are treated humanely and brought out of their suffering. 

2/26/2016 Pakistan (BBC) – A BBC investigation has found that Thailand, a country known for its hospitality to tourists, routinely arrests and detains asylum seekers. Many are Pakistani Christians who have fled religious persecution in their own country. Some are children. And they are held despite being UN-registered asylum seekers, whom the UN is under a duty to protect.

The sound of the faithful in prayer and song bursts out of a small rented room where a congregation of more than 100 people have gathered for Sunday mass.

They would be risking their lives to worship like this in their homeland, where Islamist extremists force Christians to convert, or even kill them.

Leading the prayers is Pastor Joshua, a Christian from Lahore, in what is officially known as the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Along with thousands of other Christians, he’s had to flee to Thailand and still fears the people in Pakistan who punished him for converting from Islam to Christianity.

“My bone was broken – the one right above the heart. And they tried to cut my arm off,” he says.

“My sister was murdered, she was burned alive, just because she spoke the word ‘God’. They hate the word ‘God’ so much. She was burned for this reason alone.”

The Pakistani Christians head to Thailand because it’s easy to enter the country on a short-term tourist visa and in Pakistan’s hostile neighborhood there are few safe options closer to hand.

But there is hardly a welcoming committee in Thailand. The country doesn’t want asylum seekers from anywhere. It is not a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention, and anyone without a valid visa or a work permit risks being arrested, charged with illegal immigration and jailed.

…