The two church bombings in Pakistan this week showed what Pakistani Christians are up against.
The massacre of 14-Christians, and the wounding of at least 70 others while they attended Sunday worship demonstrated the persecution facing Christians collectively in Pakistan.
Individually, many are falsely accused of blasphemy and arrested, or are pressured by militant Muslims to convert to Islam. Some Christian women who have refused to convert have been raped by their Muslim persecutors
That is why thousands have fled the country, seeking religious assylum, or refugee status.
On March 4, more than 400 Pakistani Christian immigrants--including children--were arrested and jailed in Bangkok, Thailand
They are considered illegal immigrants.
Sympathetic Thai Christians have housed and fed many of them, but since the jailing, the health--and even the lives of some of the Pakistani Christian immigrants are at risk.
Here's a letter received by The Global Lane from one family member describing the horrid, inhumane conditions in the Thai jail cell where the Christian detaineees are now being held:
A SILENT WAR
People who were arrested are in Immigration Detention Center (IDC) right now; their sufferings are uncountable in IDC as they are exposed to deadly diseases such as Hepatitis A,B,C tuberculosis, Dengue, Malaria, HIV Aids, malnutrition, Severe depression disorder, various skin and genital infections, etc. Many men and women are suffering from these contagious diseases and children are at high risj of catching them. Many children have suffered diarrhea, typhoid and malnutirtion more than 3 or 4 times due to the poor hygiene and insufficient meals. Bailing people out is a complicated process which is almost impossible. It includes having a Thai person be your guarantee and paying 50,000 Baht (150 USD) for each person.
One small cell built to hold 25-30 people is a host to 70 people packed in the poorest hygienic environment and suffocation! People have to take turns sleeping as all can’t lie down on the flat floor at once due to massive number of people. There are no beds or mattresses, people lay flat on the hard crooked floors with only a sheet to cover their bodies. Children have to lie next to toilet seats where feces and urine drops fall on their faces. There are pregnant women, elderly women, newly born babies to children of all ages, old men suffering heart diseases blood pressure and diabetes. There is no activity at all inside the prison walls, their meals never change; it’s always boiled rice and stinky soup of cucumber.
Their hopes are shattered as they realize that they have to wait until 3 or 4 more years to get just an interview with UNHCR. Whenever children get sick or women suffer high blood pressure they are given the same tablet for every disease. Guards in IDC don’t understand or speak English; they never listen even when people cry out of pain.
I ask Human Rights Watch, UNHCR, International protection authorities and all other International Christians where are they when the persecuted need them the most? I question Pakistanis settled in the west where is their compassion for their own brothers and sisters? Where is your love? Are you really Christians if you can see them suffering terribly? This is a wakeup call for all who are living lives in ignorance, please don’t satisfy yourselves by saying there are many to take care of them, THERE IS NO ONE! UNHCR has left people in this condition claiming they have no control over the Thai government. I beg you to imagine your children lying next to toilet seats with empty bellies, your wives suffering in hunger and sickness, your old mothers living in uncertainty of the future and suffocating on her breath. I bet none can even bear the thought of it. Child detention is not even allowed in some countries and yet my nation’s children have to go through this. I cry out to you with the loudest of screams! Have compassion! They need mercy! My words can never be enough to express how they are suffering every moment.
I have done my part in describing their situation to the best of my knowledge and words; this is time for you to play your part now. If you have the spirit and love of God PLEASE spread this message until their cries are heard and stand up for them. They are scared, hungry, helpless and hopeless. They are dying every second inside the prison. There is no beam of hope from UNHCR or the Thai government, they pray to God to have their cries heard. Be an answer to their prayers. Be a Christian.
I met a woman who was in IDC for three months and was bailed for 50,000 Baht, she couldn’t come up with words to talk about IDC. All she could tell with eyes filled with tears and shaky voice was "I wish not even my enemies go their ever".
After these 400 arrests many are still hiding as the police is raiding their apartment buildings and arresting families. After being arrested people are taken to police jails and kept their until their trial at court, courts give them a decision of paying 3500 Baht each for overstaying their visas or else they are sent to Thai jails for a 14 day time period where they become subject to sexual and physical abuse by the dangerous Thai criminals. After this 14 day period they are taken to IDC where women are kept with children and men are separated. They live in small cells with exceeding numbers of people of all nationalities such as Sri Lanka, Burma, Vietnam, Cambodia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Somalia, Africa etc. That’s when this period of suffering begins.
Pray for them, and then contact your congressman and the Thailand Embassy in Washington, D.C., to let them know how you feel.