Another Pakistani Christian asylum seeker dies in brutal Thailand Immigration Detention Centre

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London: January 13, 2016. (PCP) While Pakistani Christian asylum seekers were overcoming the demoralising loss of a dear sister Samina Faisal (click here), following alleged failures in duty of care leading to her death through kidney complications, another victim lost his fight for freedom. 53 year old Pervaiz Ghouri Masih who was suffering with a tumour and recurring heart condition, struggled with the lack of nourishment and cold, dingy, insalubrious overcrowded cells ofThailand's notoriously brutal Immigration Detention Centre (IDC), which cumulatively were just too much for his frail body to take. A father of six daughters Pervaiz was arrested alone while resting at home on 10th September 2015 and was not set free by charities struggling to raise the £1000 required to free detainees on bail, which consequently affords a two year protection from rearrest. Women with children as vulnerable groups were prioritised while Pervaiz was fatally overlooked. As a Christian Pervaiz was excited by the onset of Christmas, rejoicing that his saviour had come to earth to reconcile man with God. His celebration of Christ's birth was not met with a savoury stuffed turkey and lip smacking cranberry sauce, but with cold boiled water with cucumber segments, described by his jailor's as cucumber soup. No table, chair or bed were provided for his comfort despite his sallow appearance and intimated poor health, no, Pervais was required to find what little space he could find on the floor of a room that can barely squeeze one hundred people into it, crammed with over 150 detainees. Here Pervaiz had to eat, sleep and live out the final days of his wretched existence. His crime that befitted such punishment? Simply seeking freedom from the threats and intimidation and ever present threat to the lives of all his family. On the run from extremists in Pakistan he and his family entered Thailand in February 2012. They had been surviving on a mixture of low paid, abusive, exploitive labour and charitable handouts. As severe as this lifestyle might seem, to the family, the pressure was still an improvement from the daily threats they were receiving from neighbours in Pakistan, after a false blasphemy allegation was placed upon then due to a petty squabble based on jealousy. His health deteriorated to an extremely low ebb on 6th January 2016 and only then did the IDC wardens decide to release him and take him to a local hospital. Here the implementing partner of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), known as Bangkok Refugee Centre covered the costs of his hospital care. Even after exacerbating his existing known health condition through a lack of duty of care, the Thai government was still not willing to pay the medical costs of a non-citizen. After a battle for survival poor Pervaiz lost his life to a heart attack on 10th January 2016 without any family members present as they were warned not to attend by the UNHCR through fear they would be arrested for not having visas. For this family the pain has been all too much. They have now decided to return to Pakistan with the body of Pervaiz. Here they hope they can seek solace through other family members despite the knowledge that they will be unsafe and could lose more lives. The family simply believe that attempts to escape persecution have been met with more persecution culminating in the death of the head of their family. Though memories of Pakistan are tough, memories of Thailand are now even harsher. The family are terrified and will live a meagre existence trying to survive by staying under the radar, a sad demeaning life but one they now prefer as their morale has reached a nadir. Conversely the family of Samina Faisal have decided to stay in Thailand and bury her locally wanting to be near her as they struggle for emancipation. For them as for many others the painful memories of Pakistan are a fate worse then death. As we write this story a delegation of UNHCR officers have accompanied the family to help them return home. The efforts of the UNHCR in helping persecuted Pak-Christian asylum seekers return home to a place of danger has been so immediate, in contradiction to their approach to helping them attain asylum and resettlement in a safer country, a response which has been condemned by Chairman of the BPCA, Wilson Chowdhry, he said: "The speed in which officers of the UNHCR have mobilised to send these Pak-Christian asylum seekers home, despite the registered threat to their lives, is offensive. Their insouciance to the concerns of the family have no doubt contributed to the consuming dejection felt by them, that has forced them home into the initial climate of hatred they had hoped to escape. This callous act may yet lead to even more death." He added: "Despite an extensive report provide by the BPCA on the persecution Christians face in Pakistan, the UNHCR continue to hold to a fallacious position that Christian in Pakistan are severely discriminated against rather than persecuted. This misinformed policy needs a serious review unfettered by global realpolitik." The BPCA has spoken with the Pakistani High Commission in the UK, who will be assisting us with forging links with the Pakistani Embassy in Thailand. We hope to create a more streamlined approach for families to send back dead bodies to their torturous homeland without delay or confusion. The reason for this facilitation is the evidential and alarming increase in deaths of Pak-Christians asylum seekers in detention centres due to an obviated duty of care and externally due to a simple lack of finance to pay for necessary medical, sadly often for treatable or curable conditions or illnesses.

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