Lankans among migrant children suffering in Thai detention
September 2, 2014 12:03 pm
Bhavani was 8 years old when Thai police raided the apartment her
family was hiding in. The Sri Lankan girl and her family spent the next
two years locked in a crowded cell that reeked of cigarette smoke and
waste.
Fights often broke out in a cell that was sometimes packed with
more than 100 detainees, who had little room to sleep on bare floors and
would develop skin rashes, they told a rights group investigating
conditions. “When someone behaved badly to other people, I didn’t like
that,” Bhavani told the activists. “They would shout at night.”
Bhavani’s tale is one of dozens contained in the Human Rights Watch
report “Two Years with No Moon,” which was released today and details
the conditions faced by thousands of migrant children sent to Thai
immigrant detention centers each year, some of them held for years at a
time. The New York-based group says the detentions are a violation of
children’s rights and pose a risk to their health and development.
“Migrant children detained in Thailand are suffering needlessly in
filthy, overcrowded cells without adequate nutrition, education, or
exercise space,” said Alice Farmer, a children’s rights researcher at
Human Rights Watch and author of the report. “The sad thing is it’s been
known for years that these poor detention conditions fall far short of
international standards, but the Thai government has done little or
nothing to address them.”
Government Shelters
Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a seven-page response to
the report, denied many of the allegations and said migrants are
allowed to apply for release on bail. The ministry said migrant children
and their mothers are often placed in government shelters, though
sometimes they are held in detention centers if they don’t want to be
separated from a detained member of the family.
“Detention of some small number of migrant children in Thailand is
not a result of the government’s policies but rather the preference of
their migrant parents themselves,” the ministry said in the letter dated
Aug. 14 and released with the report. “The Thai government is trying
its best to address and accommodate the needs of migrant children
bearing in mind the humanitarian consideration and fundamental human
rights.”
There are at least 377,000 migrant children in Thailand, including
113,000 children of registered ethnic minorities, 128,000 children of
registered migrant workers, 54,000 children of displaced persons and
82,000 children of unregistered migrants, according a 2011 report from
the International Organization for Migration.
Neighbor Countries
The largest group of child refugees in the country are from
Myanmar, including Rohingya Muslims, who have fled army attacks in
minority areas or sectarian violence, Human Rights Watch said. Migrants
from Myanmar and other neighboring countries such as Cambodia and Laos
who are arrested typically spend a few days or weeks in Thai detention
before being deported. It is migrants or asylum seekers from countries
such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Somalia and Syria who spend more time in
detention.
“Refugee families from non-contiguous countries face the choice of
remaining locked up indefinitely with their children, waiting for months
or years for the slim chance of resettlement in a third country, or
paying for their return to their own country, where they fear
persecution,” the report said. “They are left to languish indefinitely
in what effectively amounts to debtors’ prison.”
Pay for Food
In interviews with more than 100 people, almost half children, many
of whom had spent time in Thai detention centers, Human Rights Watch
found that children don’t get the nutrition or exercise they need.
Parents would often pay to have food smuggled in from outside. Women
were brought back to detention with their newborn infants days after
giving birth. The report also alleged that children, some unaccompanied,
were routinely held with unrelated adults, a violation of international
law.
“Thailand’s use of immigration detention has deeply harmed
children’s development,” the report said. “Exceptionally vulnerable and
at key developmental points in their lives, children in immigration
detention risk psychological trauma, poor physical health, and setbacks
in their educational and social development.”
The group is calling on Thailand to adopt alternatives to detention
such as open reception centers and conditional release programs where
children can remain with their families while their immigration status
is resolved.
“Such programs are a cheaper option, respect children’s rights, and protect their future,” the report said.
For Bhavani, her two years in Thai detention ended when her family
was released on bail while they went through the process of being
resettled as refugees in the U.S., where they now live. When she learned
she was leaving the detention center that had become her home, Bhavani
told researchers she remembers feeling sadness for the friends she left
behind.
“I knew they wouldn’t be coming out too.” – Bloomberg