Church hails Pakistan lifting ban on asylum seekers’ passports

Aug 02, 2024

By Kamran Chaudhry
Pakistan has lifted a month-old ban on issuing passports to its citizens seeking asylum, which Church leaders said was a welcome step that ended a policy that violated human rights.

The Government decided on July 22 to issue passports to asylum-seeking Pakistani citizens who live abroad but whose passports were either canceled or expired, according to a government declaration.

The declaration said the passports would be issued within 60 days of application.

The declaration said Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar decided to reverse the June 5 ban during a meeting focused on the welfare of overseas Pakistanis.

The ban asked Pakistan missions aboard to stop issuing passports to those seeking asylum or already living on asylum “in the best national interest.”

Bishop Samson Shukardin of Hyderabad, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Pakistan, welcomed it “as a good decision.”

Shukardin told UCA News that the decision against issuing passports would have pushed citizens in limbo... without having the nationality of Pakistan or any other country.”

The decision to reverse the ban would “benefit the country in the long run with foreign remittances and stabilize the economic malaise. It would benefit asylum seekers of all faiths, including Christians,” the bishop said.

Hundreds of people from Pakistan, mostly Christians and Ahmadiyya Muslims, flee their Islamic country to escape religious persecution and threats to their lives. They move to Asian nations such as Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia and seek asylum in Europe and elsewhere.

According to the UNHCR office in Sri Lanka, the country hosts 311 Pakistani refugees and 180 asylum seekers, including 30 Christians.

About 400 Christian families are in Thailand seeking asylum, with a similar number in Malaysia, according to church sources.

Fr Inayat Bernard, the chaplain of the Catholic charity Caritas Pakistan, presently based in Bangkok, said lifting the ban has caused “a sigh of relief."

“It has lessened the tension of refugees and asylum seekers working to move to the next country. The people in authority have to ensure the security of all citizens, especially vulnerable minorities of Pakistan,” he said via text message.

The priest said that “discriminatory laws and unexplained and senseless taxes force people to flee the country and seek asylum for the security of their lives and better future.”--ucanews.com