Thailand's secret school is a ray of hope for Pakistani Christians
For Pakistani Christians stranded in Thailand who have been trying to register as refugees for many years, "secret" schools are a ray of hope where they are studying. A number of Pakistani Christians have fled religious persecution in Pakistan.
Sunni (not his real name) is 15 years old. He remembers the time when he used to play cricket in Pakistan. Cricket is a very popular sport in Pakistan. Sunni and his friends now play cricket every day after school.
Sunni came to Thailand with five members of his family and has been here for four years. Three months ago, Sunni's dreams came true when he once played cricket with his 15 classmates.
"It was a very memorable moment," Sunni told the Janisports Thai correspondent. I haven't been able to get out in four years. "
Sixteen Pakistani Christian youth between the ages of four and twenty are studying at the center. The families of these children have been forced to flee religious persecution in Pakistan and seek refuge in Thailand. No illegal immigrant in Thailand can provide better care for their children.
Sunni and other young people are studying at a center called The Line of Juda, which a Pakistani has set up in Bangkok. The education center is located in an apartment where Pakistani refugees live.
These Pakistani refugees, despite their illegal status in Thailand, consider themselves somewhat safe. He says his landlord understands his situation.
Of the 16 students studying at the center, only three have been granted refugee status by the UNHCR, while the applications of 13 others have been rejected.
Jack, a Pakistani Christian who founded the institute, now serves as a teacher at The Line of Juda.
They set up the center with the help of an American couple. He says the center is not very high, but it does give the children some hope.
He has written on the board the part of the Bible that encourages patience in difficult situations.
He says the situation is not good for us, but we are patient and pray.
Until two months ago, these students were sitting on the ground. But now they are getting funding and the center has furniture and books. An organization called Baptist Global Resonance has bought him ten tablets.
Millers is not only helping run the center, he is also training five Pakistani parents to educate their children at home. He wants to set up a similar center for 18 students from Sri Lanka next month.
Why did Jacob leave Pakistan?
In 2013, Joseph Colony was targeted in Lahore. It was this incident that convinced Jacob that it was now difficult for Christians to stay in Pakistan.
Jacob lived in Karachi. One day, long live Taliban slogans were written in his settlement. The posters encouraged the killing of non-Muslims. When members of Jacob's population protested, they were shot. Jacob left Karachi and moved to Hyderabad, but his family eventually came to the conclusion that his stay in Pakistan was no longer safe and he decided to move to Thailand. Jacob was studying medicine when he left Pakistan.
Jacob says the work he is doing is very tiring but he has been commanded by God to do something for his community.
Speaking to janisports. online Thai, Aamir Naveed, an official at the Pakistani embassy in Thailand, dismissed reports that there was a dispute between people of different faiths in Pakistan. According to Amir Naveed, Christians in Pakistan have full rights.
On this floor of the apartment where the Lines of Juda is located is another educational center where fifteen students between the ages of four and sixteen are studying.
Ruth is a teacher at the center. Ruth says the number of students is dwindling every day. Earlier, 25 children were studying in this center but now many of them have returned. Ruth is also among those who have not been granted refugee status and has filed an appeal against the decision.
Ruth says her family in Lahore was threatened with death by Muslim militants. Ruth says she chose Thailand because her uncles had been in Thailand before. But even three years later, he is upset after his application for refugee status was rejected. She says that when she was in Pakistan, she worked as a nurse in a private hospital. "We can't go back to our country," she says. If we go back, we will be killed. "They (Muslim extremists) think that a person who is not a Muslim does not have the right to live."
There are two teachers in this educational center who are teaching science, religion, mathematics, English, and Urdu. Ruth says she is teaching English to children so that they can live in a third country.
These teachers also provide moral support to children who are arrested by the police for living in the country illegally.
Ruth says children are becoming more and more stressed. We get scared when someone knocks on our door in the morning. They think that maybe the police or the immigrants have come.
Wilson Chaudhry is the Chairperson of the British Pakistani Christian Association based in the United Kingdom. He says his organization has been running two educational centers in Bangkok for the past two years and will soon open another.
Wilson Chaudhry says he receives donations from Christian organizations around the world and with their help has set up four safe houses for victims of religious persecution in Pakistan. There are six people living in each center.
Nargis Iqbal stands behind bars at the Illegal Immigrant Detention Center IDC, where she spoke to janisports Thai. She smiles to see her husband who comes there every day to see her and also brings food for her. Dozens of people are locked up here. Nargis Iqbal told janisports Thai that she has been in custody for two years and five months. She was teaching at an educational center on Paracha Att Road when she was arrested and brought here.
There were 67 students at the center, some of whom were arrested while others managed to escape. Some were released by the UNHCR.
Forty children are still being held at the detention center, according to the Coalition for the Rights of Refugees and Stateless Persons. All were arrested along with their parents. Twenty of them are in the process of gaining refugee status. On January 23, nine more children were arrested in the Annot area.
Hannah MacDonald, a UNHCR spokeswoman in Bangkok, told JS Thai that the UNHCR was opposed to the detention of asylum seekers, especially children. However, a UNHCR spokesman said the Thai government had taken "encouraging steps" to end child detention.
The Thai government is trying to devise a way to protect the rights of illegal immigrants while residing in Thailand.
Although it is not part of the 1951 Thai Convention on the Status of Refugees, Thailand is considering becoming a party to humanitarian aid, Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Bondi Santi P. Tux said.
Nargis Iqbal, who has been held in a Thai detention center for two and a half months, says she has a sore mouth and cannot eat. Despite this, Nargis Iqbal said that she would rather die in Thailand than go to Pakistan.