Sharing smiles out loud

The majority of refugees in Thailand come from Burma, who predominantly live in refugee camps. There is another group of refugees coming from countries including Pakistan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Palestine, Syria, and Somalia that are located in Bangkok. According to UNHCR, there are approximately 5000 urban refugees who have sought protection in Bangkok, Thailand as of 2018. Thailand, not a signatory to the UN 1951 Refugee Convention does not have a domestic framework for the protection of refugees in its country. As a result of this missing policy, many urban refugees are systematically detained in Thailand at various Immigration Detention Centers (IDC).

The IDC in Bangkok is located in an unassuming neighborhood of San Plu. I am familiar with a variety of immigration detention centers in the US because I am an immigration lawyer. The IDC was a different experience in several ways. I was fortunate to visit a female detainee who had been in detention since late 2017. She fled her home country of Pakistan due to religious persecution. I was allowed to bring in food for the woman I saw, as detainees are only served a bland cucumber soup and rice on a daily basis. The visitation room is situated in a covered courtyard. I was accompanied by a staff member of Asylum Access Thailand who cautioned me that she hoped I was able to speak loudly. I thought nothing of this and assumed I might be in a room where multiple other visitors would be. What I didn’t know was that I would be in the same courtyard with over 100 people, half detainees and half visitors. We were separated by two chain linked fences that were approximately 4 feet apart from each other. I held a sign up with the name of the female, I will call her B.B. to protect her identity. I waited for B.B. to see her name through the double chain linked fences. Upon finding B.B. I asked her to move towards the end of the fences where fewer people were shouting case updates, health conditions, words of encouragement, prayers, and other “sensitive” information across to one another.

As I smiled at B.B. and she at me, I asked her how she was doing, did she wake up ok, and how her conditions were inside. This woman I was meeting for the first time, has been in detention since the later half of 2017, when her bail was revoked. B.B. had registered with UNHCR in 2015, and fortunately was able to be interviewed in January, 2019 by the US Department of Homeland Security for potential resettlement in the US. B.B. like other urban refugees who are in detention had registered with UNHCR, had a successful refugee determination, and are now waiting for resettlement in other countries like the US.

What puzzled me is why B.B. and others situated like her are being detained by the Thai government while also under the protection of UNHCR. The issue of UN protection of refugees who have been detained in the IDC has become increasingly problematic given the Thai government’s immigration law that allows law enforcement wide discretion for the detention of foreigners. Asylum Access Thailand is advocating for the Thai government to change their policies including, who and when to detain foreigners and alternatives to detention to alleviate the emotional an psychosocial trauma children and mothers face when separated.

While she remains hopeful for resettlement, B.B.’s current reality is that she is still detained with no possibility for release until a decision is made in her case. We shout words of encouragement and gratitude at each other until our voices are hoarse and I say goodbye. I wait on a bench and watch the visitation shouting matches continue. As I sit there I am struck with humility and a sense of gratitude to B.B. and all the other urban refugees who still find space in their hearts to smile as their future release from the IDC is yet to be known.

Atim Otii