Christian Refugees from Pakistan Cry for Help
More than half the 14 million refugees and asylum-seekers under the mandate of the United Nations refugee agency world-wide do not actually live in the camps they are associated with. A growing number live illegally in cities and towns around the world. Across Asia alone, from India to the Pacific islands, there are about half a million such “urban refugees” according to the UN agency. Christian Freedom International has documented the plight of Christian refugees from Pakistan in a newly released video.
After receiving numerous death threats and beatings from Muslim militants, Pastor Joseph Aswar, his wife, and two children sold their home and everything they owned in Pakistan to flee the country.
They paid an “agent” a large sum of money in Lahore, and came to Thailand as “tourists” to apply for asylum with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Bangkok.
In theory and according to international law, the UNHCR is supposed to protect and provide for the basic needs of asylum seekers while they wait for a hearing to decide their fate.
If granted asylum by the UNHCR, Pastor Joseph and his family will be able to resettle in a free country, where Christians are not persecuted for their faith.
However, the “reality” for Joseph and many other Pakistani Christians seeking asylum at the UNHCR in Bangkok is far different than what is “supposed” to happen.
After arriving in Bangkok and immediately making application for asylum as a persecuted Christian, Pastor Joseph received his “person of concern” card from the UNHCR. His “hearing” for asylum is scheduled for years from now.
His tourist visa has long since expired.
Joseph, an educated, capable man, cannot work because he is now in Thailand “illegally.”
He and his family, and many other Christian asylum seekers from Pakistan pray each day for their next meal. Their children cannot go to school and they share a room in a Bangkok slum with another Christian family, all living in the one room flat, sleeping on the floor.
Joseph and his family receive no help from the UNHCR and they must survive in the “shadows” while they await their hearing. He and many other Christian asylum seekers from Pakistan live day to day in fear of arrest and deportation because they have no visas, and Thailand never signed the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention that protects refugees’ rights.
As bad as his current conditions are, Joseph says he is thankful to be in Thailand. He cannot go back to Pakistan as he and his family face certain death. Pastor Joseph misses his home, church, and friends and family in Pakistan, but he knows he must keep looking forward, not backward.
Persecuted Christian “urban refugees” scrape by in limbo, even more vulnerable than refugees living in a refugee camp.
To make matters worse, the UNHCR in Bangkok is an enormous, uncaring, inefficient bureaucracy that provides little to no help to Christian asylum seekers.
According to Christian Freedom International president, Jim Jacobson, “It is a heartbreaking travesty how the UNHCR treats Christian asylum seekers. It is wrong, and this needs to be investigated and corrected before donor nations give another penny to the UN.”
Christian Freedom International is providing lifesaving assistance to these Christian refugees from Pakistan with emergency medical care, rent, food, utilities, and other basic needs. For more information, watch the video, or visit www.christianfreedom.org.
(Source: Christian Newswire)
