World Watch Monitor has heard from reliable sources that the Thai government is planning to cancel bail for all male asylum seekers in Bangkok.
The move would require them to return to detention centres straight away.
This would include many of the estimated 11,500 Pakistani Christians who complained in 2016 that UNHCR officials in Thailand were not taking their applications seriously enough.
Some suspect that Thailand’s aim is to put pressure on the asylum seekers to return home to Pakistan. Many may do so to avoid being further detained, but the targeting of men could make women and children more vulnerable in a system that is already facing a severe backlog. Part of the asylum seekers’ criticism of UNHCR officials was their fear that children were missing out on education while applications were being processed. “Thai schools aren’t interested in teaching our students, nor are [the children] happy there, because everything is in Thai, which they don’t understand,” parents said.