Special refugee fund bails out Pakistanis

Human rights advocates said they hoped the newly launched Refugee Freedom Fund could be used to assist other illegal immigrants and stateless people such as that of the Rohingya groups, some of which have been locked up in detention centres for years.

The 96 Ahmadi Muslims walked out of Suan Phlu Immigration Detention Centre after the National Human Rights Commission and Thai Committee for Refugees (TCR) put up 5 million baht bail for them from the fund.

The refugees, including 34 children below the age of 12, smiled or shed tears of joy as they left the detention centre where they had languished for about six months.

A few of them hugged members of the Ahmadi community in Thailand who helped coordinate the bail efforts.

The Ahmadi group was detained in December 2010 after arriving in the country from Pakistan where they said they faced often violent persecution.

Thai human rights activists are sheltering them while they wait for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to deal with their applications to resettle to a third country.

Mahmood Tahir, a leader of the detained group, thanked the activists.

"This is a very precious moment for us. All of us feel grateful to the Thai authorities and staff inside and outside the IDC," Mr Tahir said.

Ayaz Iftikhar, a Bangkok-based representative of the International Ahmadi Muslim Community, said apart from this group, a hundred others were waiting for resettlement in third countries in Europe, the United States or Canada. The longest wait for resettlement is about two years, he said.

He said the resettlement process may be slow but at least it was moving.

"The Ahmadi here are under a lot of pressure, including financial, since we are not allowed to work," Ayaz said.

"Those who are recognised as refugees receive a small subsistence allowance but it's not adequate to live on."

NHRC chair Amara Pongsapich said the Ahmadi case was a good example of practical and possible collaboration between concerned government agencies, civil society and the NHRC itself to come up with a conducive environment for stateless people.

It should be a model for further work on such issues, including that of the Rohingya.

Forty-four Rohingya have been held at the Suan Phlu detention centre for more than two years. Another 65 have been detained in Ranong, Songkhla, Phangnga and Phuket for half a year.

Dr Niran Pitakwatchara, another commissioner, said for a true long-term solution to the problem, Thailand should ratify the 1951 UN convention on refugees.

Immigration Bureau commissioner Pol Lt Gen Wiboon Bangthamai said the Rohingya problem was much more difficult than that of the Pakistani refugees and asylum seekers.

The police can't push them out, but there is no organisation to intervene or put up bail for them either, said Pol Lt Gen Wiboon.

"We are waiting for the National Security Council to have a final say on how to resolve the Rohingya problems," said the immigration chief.

He said it would be better for the Rohingya and other refugees to stay in a camp-like designated place outside Bangkok, as the IDC was very crowded.

Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network coordinator Anoop Sukumaran, said he had yet to see an official, concrete solution to the problem.

"A new place might be better but it would remain a detention centre. We are looking at alternatives to detention as these people are not criminals and they should not be detained anyhow, anywhere," Mr Anoop said.

The Suan Phlu IDC also holds over 300 North Koreans waiting for resettlement in South Korea and some 600 illegal immigrants from Laos, Cambodia and Burma.

An immigration staff member said the last three groups were not so difficult to deal with as they could be pushed back to the border near Mae Sot, Mukdahan, Ubon Ratchathani and Sa Kaeo if they failed immigration screenings.

"The screening process is quite quick; about a week," said the immigration police officer, who declined to be named.

"The North Koreans have to wait a little longer, about a month. But the Rohingya, they have been here for two years already,"

Link:  :http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/240906/special-refugee-fund-bails-out-pakistanis