Christian Asylum Seekers Need Our Prayers
“ . . . these persecuted Christian, urban refugees scrape by in limbo, more vulnerable than refugees living in a refugee camp.”
By CFI Field Staff
BANGKOK, THAILAND — After receiving numerous death threats and beatings from Muslim militants, Pastor “Ahmed” (for security reasons we cannot release his real name), his wife, and two children sold their home and everything they owned in Pakistan to flee that country. After paying an “agent” a large sum of money in Lahore, they came to Thailand as “tourists” to apply for asylum with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Bangkok.
In theory, 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 Ahmed and his family will be able to resettle in a free country, where Christians are not persecuted for their faith.
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Pastor Ahmed and his family in their one room flat they rent with another family. All eight people sleep on the floor and rarely leave the room.
Fact vs. Fiction
However, the reality for Ahmed and many other Pakistani Christians seeking asylum at the UNHCR in Bangkok is far different than how the system was designed to work.
After arriving in Bangkok and immediately making application for asylum as a persecuted Christian, Ahmed received his “person of concern” card from the UNHCR. His “hearing” for asylum is scheduled for years from now. His tourist visa has long expired, yet he must remain in Thailand to have a hope of asylum.
Ahmed 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 visa. Most never leave the confines of their small, dark, hot, and dingy one-room flats for fear of arrest.
Pastor Ahmed, an educated, capable man, cannot work because he is now in Thailand illegally. He and his family, and hundreds of other Christian asylum seekers from Pakistan pray each day for their next meal. Their children cannot go to school. They share a single room in a Bangkok slum with another Christian family; all living in the one room flat, sleeping on the floor.
As bad as his current conditions are, Ahmed says he is thankful to be here. He cannot go back to Pakistan where he and his family face certain death. Ahmed misses his home, church, and friends and family in Pakistan, but he knows he must keep looking forward, not back.
Christian Freedom International is providing much needed financial support to Ahmed and other Christian asylum seekers in the slums of Bangkok. The funds provide for food, rent, utilities, medicine, and propane for cooking. A family of four can “survive” in the Bangkok slums for about $50 a month.
Pastor Joseph Wakeman from Texas, along with CFI coworkers, visited, provided help, and prayed for Ahmed and his family.
Pastor Joseph Wakeman from Texas, along with CFI coworkers, visited, provided help, and prayed for Ahmed and his family.
Thankful, Despite Hardships
The persecuted Christian asylum seekers rightly expected the UNHCR would protect them. But Thai police ignore “persons of concern” cards. Thailand never signed the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention that protects refugees’ rights. As a result these persecuted Christian, “urban refugees” scrape by in limbo -more vulnerable than refugees living in a refugee camp.
Despite the hardships, the Christian asylum seekers say they are thankful to be out of Pakistan.
CFI co workers brought Ahmed’s wife to a hospital in Bangkok for much needed heart examinations. Please pray for her.
CFI co workers brought Ahmed’s wife to a hospital in Bangkok for much needed heart examinations. Please pray for her.
Urgent Matter for Prayer
Pastor Ahmed’s wife is in need of urgent heart surgery. Christian Freedom International co-workers took her to a hospital to undergo a series of tests and heart examinations. The doctors explained that unless she receives a much-needed open-heart operation, she will die. The UNHCR is supposed to provide for emergency medical care for “persons of concern,” but this enormous bureaucracy has so far been unresponsive to basic needs, let alone a major surgery.
The surgery could cost as much $15,000 or more. Please pray that God will meet this need. Pray for healing for Ahmed’s wife.
Pray for the safety and ongoing needs of Ahmed and other Pakistani Christian asylum seekers in Bangkok while they await their hearings.