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Hundreds of Tamils fled the
worsening situation in Sri
Lanka soon after the peace accord was
signed in 2002. Among them a few hundreds sought refuge in Thailand.
Most of those refugees could now be found in the Immigration Bureau jail of
Thailand.
For the past two years more
than a hundred Tamils have been imprisoned in the Immigration Bureau jail
of Thailand.
Around 21 children and more than 20 women are among the hundreds of Sri
Lankan Tamil refugees imprisoned.
These Tamil refugees have
been allotted the worst cells in the jail. It has been months since any of
them had seen the sunlight or breathed fresh air. They are struggling to
find space even to sleep among the people from all over the world, who have
been imprisoned here on one pretext or another. Children's education and
health are totally neglected. The food provided is devoid of nutrients.
Most of the people imprisoned are sick and they are affected both
psychologically and physically. Some
medicines are given once in a while through the prison bars, without even
examining the patient.
All a patient could do is try
to communicate with the Thai nurse in sign language. If a patient tries to
raise his voice, his fate would soon be worse than death. Even if he is at
death bed, he would not get any treatment. There have been instances of
some critically ill children being saved after all the Tamil prisoners have
attracted the attention of the authorities by banging their plates on the
prison bars.
Normally a family gets split
into groups when they are imprisoned here. Young children and girls are
sent with their mothers to separate cells, while boys are sent along with
their fathers. It has been around 10 months since some of the men saw their
wives. They don't know how their families are faring. This has affected the
parents' morale more than anything else.
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These Sri Lankan Tamils have
not committed any crime, except perhaps seeking refuge in Thailand.
And they have no way of letting loved ones know about their fate. There is
no way for them to get information to the outside world. But, human rights
organizations in Thailand
seem to have turned a blind eye to the plight of these unfortunate
refugees, even though they seem to be quite aware of the problem.
What makes the whole
situation more unbearable is the behavior of the Sri Lankan Embassy in Thailand.
The Sri Lankan Embassy has labeled some prisoners as members of LTTE and
calls those with families as “Maaveerar Kudumbam” (the relatives of the
slain members of LTTE). They announce these 'facts' to some preferred media
with a bias. It has also requested the Thai government not to let these prisoners
have visitors. We heard the Sri Lankan Embassy has made this request in
paper, and the prisoners are ill-treated based on this request.
Among the hundreds of Sri
Lankan Tamils who have sought refuge in Thailand,
most of them are living in the countryside near Bangkok. They are scared to venture out
in daylight. This is because they are scared that people connected to the
Embassy might inform their presence to the authorities. Members of the Sri
Lankan paramilitary roam about freely masquerading as refugees acting as
informants to the Sri Lankan embassy.
All the Sri Lankan Tamil
refugees have registered themselves in the United Nations office in Thailand.
Even the people approved by the UN office as refugees are languishing
behind bars, while more UN approved refugees suffer outside. It is quite
unfortunate that even the UN office has not paid much attention to the
goings on, in spite of being aware of it. They don't seem to pay any
attention what so over about the plight of the children. UNICEF declares
that putting children in jails in an international criminal offence. How
can it ignore these children behind the bars in Thailand? It is quite
unfortunate that not even a cursory investigation on the wellbeing of these
children was undertaken.
Hence, international
humanitarian organizations should come forward and raise their voice on
behalf of these hapless refugees. We all should work together and bring an
awareness about these poor refugees languishing in the Immigration Bureau
jail of Thailand. Humanitarian organizations and
associations should come forward to resolve the plight of our fellow
countrymen.
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