Hundreds of Christian refugees languish in Asia

By Joseph DeCaro

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (Worthy News)– The president of the Pakistan Christian Congress expressed concerns about the delays in processing hundreds of Pakistani Christian refugees in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong who have been waiting years for decisions on their asylum applications while living under deplorable conditions, according to the Pakistan Christian Post.

Nazir Bhatti said that these Christian refugees — along with their families — are all starving as they await their fate while international relief agencies refuse to get involved on their behalf.

Bhatti said Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws had led to a mass migration of Christians out of Pakistan’s Punjab province after mobs attacked their lives and property in Gojra, Korian and Bahimnwali villages after allegations of blasphemy surfaced in 2009.

Bhatti also claimed there was a double standard in the Western world’s treatment of Pakistan’s Christian refugees.

When a Muslim girl named Malala Yousafzai was targeted by the Talban, her case was heard by Buckingham Palace, said Bhatti. But when Christian girls were targeted by the same Talban in its attack on Peshawar Church, no medical treatment was offered them in the EU.

After she was shot while riding a school bus by a Taliban gunman, the 15-year-old Yousafzai was successfully fitted with a titanium plate to her skull at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, UK.