Policemen in Thailand have arrested 400 Pakistani Christians, including children, for being illegal immigrants.
According to CBN News, the refugees are converts from Islam and sought to escape persecution and threats to their life in Pakistan. They travelled to Thailand in the hope of receiving asylum and securing resettlement to other countries through the United Nations Commission on Human Rights or UNCHR.
Several of the arrested Pakistani Christian asylum seekers already have interviews scheduled with the UNCHR, CBN News said.
However, the Thai government views them as illegal immigrants and could deport them back to Pakistan.
Thailand is a popular choice among Pakistani Christians fleeing from religious persecution. According to an Express Tribune article, asylum seekers choose to travel to Bangkok because of the relative ease with which they can secure a tourist visa. Once arriving in Bangkok, these Christian immigrants either go to refugee camps or seek out churches that will host them and provide them their basic necessities while they seek refugee status.
Seeking refugee status with the UNCHR compels immigrants to wait for at least two years before being granted interviews.
Others risk finding employment to provide for their needs, even if it means being arrested for being illegal immigrants after their visas expire, as they wait to be scheduled for an interview.
Refugee advocates in Thailand claim that being registered as an asylum-seeker with the UNCHR does not always make Pakistani Christian immigrants safe. They told the Express Tribune that Thai police generally ignore UN letters carried by refugees signifying their status as asylum-seekers.
Thailand, together with Malaysia and Indonesia, is not a signatory of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention for refugee rights.
Thai Committee for Refugees Foundation's Executive Director Veerawit Tianchainan claimed that Thailand's hostile stance towards refugees is due to fears that recognising their status will encourage the flow of more people into the country.
