Thailand's Asylum Crackdown Our World

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Behind bars, yet these men, women and children are not criminals.

They are Christians fleeing persecution in their homeland,

Pakistan, only to be locked up in a country where they thought

I've just found dozens of women sobbing.

Thailand, a tourist paradise, but a country that refuses to help

The United Nations Refugee Agency is here.

It is supposed to offer asylum seekers a lifeline.

So, why are those claiming to flee persecution,

many of them Christians, being imprisoned indefinitely?

Pakistanis make up the second largest group of asylum

If this service was taking place in their homeland, the pastor

Back in Pakistan, conversion to Christianity is seen by some

Suicide bombers and gunmen have killed hundreds of Christians

The country's blasphemy laws have been used as a pretext by Islamist

Others have been imprisoned, or sentenced to death.

You can see why Thailand is their best option for escape.

Pakistan's border countries are Islamic, war-torn, communist,

Cheap flights and easy to obtain holiday visas get entire families

But not all of them get away in time.

You are clearly someone who has to be strong all the time

for everybody else and that's because the pastor and his

congregation's trauma is far from over.

Thailand has long been signed up to tourism.

But the country hasn't signed up to a UN international agreement to

Under Thai law, anyone without a valid visa

We're here to investigate what happens to those who say

they have no choice but to flee to Thailand.

To investigate, we're filming discreetly and at times under cover.

All the names of people in this film have been changed.

A network of Bangkok apartment blocks has become

They arrive with few possessions, relying on money

It's enough for food and a single room, with no toilet or kitchen.

They also arrive with their own stories of persecution,

but they still have a chance at a new life.

Thailand has allowed UNHCR to step in to investigate the credibility

They are either relocated to another country or repatriated.

The process is supposed to take six months, but all of these families

And a new generation is being born here.

25 days ago, this baby came into this stateless world.

When she was five days old, her mother died of tuberculosis.

Asylum seekers have no access to work, education or healthcare.

Now it's just the baby and her father.

Your wife got to spend some time with her before she passed away?

He has been waiting two years for his asylum case to be processed.

It appears the Thai immigration police are losing their patience

We are warned the immigration police could strike at any time.

We hear there's been a raid in a block nearby.

We've just come to this apartment block

Has this woman's husband been taken away?

The Thai police have raided the apartment that

many of the asylum seekers from Pakistan stay in and burst

the doors down and started to take people away.

This is what can happen to those seeking refuge in a country that has

not signed up to the UN refugee Convention.

The husbands are taken to court, charged with illegal immigration,

In Thailand, asylum seekers are seen as criminals, not victims.

All registered asylum seekers, including the men just arrested,

It certifies them as an internationally recognised UN

That means they should not be arrested or detained for seeking

asylum, while the UN investigate their case.

That day, in a series of raids, a total of 50 Pakistani

UN-registered asylum seekers were arrested,

The charity Jubilee Campaign says hundreds are detained every month,

mainly Pakistanis, as they are easy to find in one of the largest asylum

communities living in concentrated areas.

The message is crystal clear - asylum seekers are not welcome

The UNHCR say in the last six months they've saved

They say they constantly remind the Thai authorities that increased

detention of asylum seekers has proven to have limited deterrent

value, but carries significant costs, both monetary

This man's wife, Laila, was arrested by immigration police

as she visited friends in another part of Bangkok.

Her family share this one room, all ten of them.

The man, his two daughters, his in-laws, their children

For now, their only chance of being reunited with

But how can this existence in Thailand be better

He claims that back in Pakistan a gang tried to kill him

and his brother when they refused to convert to Islam.

Their UN asylum hearing isn't until 2018.

Until then, their survival is down to charity handouts

So, why is the UN's asylum process taking so long,

leaving thousands vulnerable to arrest?

UN sources tell us there are only eight specialist staff in Thailand

for more than 100,000 asylum seekers, including an estimated

In a statement the UNHCR admits:

In its response, the Thai government says:

While they insist specific communities are not targeted,

to the BBC the immigration police announced:

I am going to Bangkok's main immigration detention centre

It holds anyone found guilty by a Thai court

They have already paid a fine, but still end up here.

The conditions are being described by human rights groups as inhumane.

Not surprising, then, that journalists and cameras

But we are still going in, posing as charity volunteers

delivering water and food for inmates.

Our hidden cameras are meant to be search proof.

For one hour a day some of the 200 asylum seekers held here are let out

of their cells to meet visitors, mainly charity workers.

The detainees I see are mainly Pakistani Christians, men,

But all the charity volunteers can offer them is food and water.

On the one side you have got charity workers trying

to have a conversation with the detainees

between two fences and there is a metre gap between them.

On the other side all I can see is men, women and children mainly

A lot of the women are complaining that the children are ill

with vomiting and diarrhoea because of the dirty water.

Her mother has been here three months since she was arrested

The Thai government says parents often choose to have their children

What we are witnessing is a breach of UN International law,

Laws that ban the present of children, particularly with

Laws that ban the imprisonment of children,

particularly with adults, even with their parents.

Nobody has visited you from the United Nations?

In the chaos I find Sabir's wife, Laila.

Hello, I saw your husband, and all your family.

They asked me to send a message to you.

She has not seen her children for two months.

The men are taken back to this overcrowded cell.

Rare snapshots of their life behind bars obtained by the British

The women and children are separated from the men.

A lot of the people in the detention centre manage to write letters

One of the detainees wrote a note saying, hello, how are you,

I have been in IDC for the last two and a half months.

There is a price offered for their freedom.

The Thai government brands it as bail, allowing local charities

to pay for the release of those deemed vulnerable.

This pastor and his wife were in detention for six months.

They are among the chosen few to be released on bail.

In response to our investigation the UNHCR says it is working

The Thai government denied the enforced imprisonment

of children and dirty, overcrowded conditions

in the detention centre, saying:

For other Pakistani asylum seekers there is a worse fate

They are locked up with real criminals in a notorious

Heads shaved, stripped, searched, and shackled.

Rare photos by a local journalist of what happens to those

who are charged with illegal immigration and cannot afford to pay

the fine imposed by the Thai authorities.

Some of these asylum seekers have now been released on bail.

The women and children are put in a separate cell from the men.

Another mother she shared a cell with tells me prayer

was all they could offer their sick and hungry children.

We asked the Thai government to respond to allegations

by these asylum seekers of inhumane imprisonment with criminals.

These prisoners were eventually released when missionaries

Only to be sent to a detention centre, forcing charities to pay

His wife has died and he is alone with his daughter.

He is appealing to the UNHCR at their offices

Is it not an option to go back to your family in Pakistan,

who can help you look after your baby?

There is no guarantee they will be given a new life in another country.

Weeks later the UNHCR decided to prioritise his case after all.

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