Thailand to free 96 Pakistan asylum detainees

Thai Committee for Refugees paid a five million baht ($165,000) bail bond for the release.


Afp June 04, 2011

BANGKOK: Thailand on Saturday confirmed it would release a group of almost a hundred Pakistani refugees and asylum seekers that activists said includes several dozen children and a baby born in detention.

In total 96 people, most of whom were arrested in December, will be released from a Bangkok detention centre on Monday, an immigration officer said.

The detained people are from the Ahmadi community, who suffer violence and persecution in their home country, according to the Thai Committee for Refugees, which helped organise the release.

Veerawit Tianchainan, the organisation's executive director, said there were 34 children under 12 among those detained in cramped rooms that he said were filled with up to 150 people despite being designed to hold just 40 inmates.

He said one baby was born inside the facility and described conditions as "unhygienic and very crowded".

"Children were separated from their mothers or fathers and that kind of condition, psychologically, is very very bad," he said, explaining that families were split up because men and women are held apart.

The organisation has paid a five million baht ($165,000) bail bond and undertaken to provide for the welfare of the Ahmadis as they await the results of resettlement applications, mainly to the US.

"I think that back in Pakistan the Ahmadi were outcast by the Islamic institutions, there was a lot of physical abuse," he said, adding that the group will now be housed in a Bangkok suburb.

Ninety-nine Ahmadis were killed in Pakistan in 2010, more than the total number of the minority group killed in the previous 14 years, according to the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in its annual report released in April this year.

"We had unprecedented killings of Ahmadis in 2010 and the government hasn't got the guts to console and sympathise with them," HRCP secretary general I.A. Rehman said at the time.

Tianchainan said the agreement to release the group was a "historic development" as it was the first time such a large number of refugees had been freed at once and praised the Thai immigration bureau for being "very cooperative".

Rights groups had slammed the decision to arrest the Ahmadis in the first place as almost all were believed to be either recognised refugees or awaiting confirmation of their status.

 

COMMENTS (13)

sam | 12 years ago | Reply @indian guy: "I am sure 90% Kashmiris will never accept Pakistan as their naion. " now if only we could make a decision based on what you arent and are sure about :) .. also like the way you dodged the bullet on the whole killing muslim minorities in india thing.. of course this bears no reflection on how tolerent a nation/religion you guys have... pls lets just stop with the hypocracy and realize wer all a bit too old for this oneup-manship game...
sam | 12 years ago | Reply @indian guy: with the majority of the population living below the pvertyline with little to no access to education and basic necessities plz do enlighten me on how this chnage is coming about!! what election are you talking about? there is no concept of a fair vote, thats been a tried tested and failed methodology..."Killing of Kashmiris? How many and where. These are very few" clearly you ahve alot of respect for these lives lost... and for the record NO hindus by number globally dont even compare to muslims, it is the fastest spereading religion in thw rold.. get your facts straight PLZ! if there is trouble being created by terrorists who call themselves muslims im educated enough as a humanbeing and as a muslim to know that that person is not a muslim as he/she is not acting like one... islam teaches you the true meaning of being a muslim.. such hyppocrates are the equivalent to the pagans of Makkah at the time of the Holy Prophet. and if you dont bring religion into everything, then thats your personal choice, im no one to comment on it... with regards to why we always bring religon into things its because people identify themselves at different levels with different things, we ALWAYS first identify ourselves with being muslims and then perhaps our state.. i reiterate.. we all ahve our problems.. whether as indians, pakistanis, hindus or muslims.. but none of us should stand here playing holier than thou
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