Christians 'Chained like dogs'

'The stench as you walk in is overpowering. They have two toilets to serve over 200 people.'

Christian persecution continues throughout Pakistan but what happened to the Christians who got away?

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Christians fleeing their Muslim neighbors in the Middle East have traveled as far as possible to escape persecution and the ever-present threat of death.

One place Christians manage to reach is Thailand. Unfortunately, Thailand has refused them asylum, leaving thousands trapped.

With nowhere to go and no home to return to, Christians are being detained without access to healthcare, medicine or acceptable hygiene facilities.

CBN News shared the plight of one refugee: Mustaq Faisal.

"My life is full of challenges," he admitted. He was in obvious distress when he said he was forced to leave Pakistan.

Some of his Muslim neighbors had accused Faisal of tearing pages from the Koran and demanded his family be killed as punishment.

"I was so scared," Faisal recalled. "I told them I would never do anything like that to their holy book, but they didn't believe me."

With reports of other Christians suffering falling prey to Muslim aggression and horrific attacks, Faisal knew he had no choice but to flee.

Faisal took his wife, Samina, and son, Joshua, and fled Pakistan. When the trio arrived in Thailand, they had high hopes of beginning new lives free from persecution and death threats.

"The moment we arrived in Thailand I submitted our asylum application with the U.N.," Faisal described.

Then they waited.

Three months after applying for asylum, the family's tourist visa expired.

"I was not at home when the Thai police came to our apartment," Faisal recalled. "My wife told them she was a heart patient and that they should not arrest her, but they didn't listen."

Any refugee without a tourist visa is immediately considered an illegal immigrant. All illegals are arrested and transported in caged vans to an Immigration Detention Center (IDC).

Samina's heart condition worsened while at the IDC and Faisal became desperate.

"She was okay for the first three days, but then she got very ill on December 20," Faisal said. "I kept asking, I kept crying, but they did not listen to me. I told them that if you don't do anything, she will die."

Christian human rights advocate Wilson Chowdhry attempted to intervene on Samina's behalf but feared his efforts would be fruitless.

"What we found is that the wardens protecting, meant to be protecting these detainees, deny them access to healthcare and medicines," Chowdhry shared.
 
Chowdhry and other Christian human rights advocates snapped photos of the "inhumane" conditions within the IDC facility, which included images of men chained like animals.

"The stench as you walk in is overpowering. They have two toilets to serve over 200 people," Chowdhry described.

In Some cases, the humanitarians discovered 200 people crammed into rooms meant to house one-hundred.

"So they are sleeping one on top of each other, or they'll be sleeping crouching or standing up."

Six months after their original asylum application was submitted, Faisal had yet to receive a response from the U.N.'s agency.

When the U.N. finally responded to Faisal's application for asylum, roughly one year later, Samina had already passed away.

"My life is so terrible now," Faisal cried. "We faced so many difficulties in Pakistan and that's why we escaped to Thailand. Now I'm here and my wife is dead! What am I supposed to do? My son keeps asking, 'Where is mommy?' But I don't have the courage to tell him the truth."

"There is no one else to blame," Chowdhry explained. "The responsibility lies with the royal Thai authorities."

Though Faisal agrees with Chowdhry, he also blames the U.N.

"They killed my wife because they were responsible for our protection," he stated.

With no one else to rely on, Faisal admitted he clings to the Lord and often reads verses from Psalm 121.

He also reminds Joshua God will take care of them.

"I trust in God, only God can help us in our time of difficulties," Faisal stated. Meanwhile, six other Pakistani Christian refugees have died in Thai detention centers.

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