Hamza, 13-year-old Somali refugee with Down's Syndrome held in Thailand.
Hamza, a 13-year-old Somali refugee with Down's Syndrome, has spent most of his days in an overcrowded cell at the Immigration Detention Center in the Thai capital since he was detained five months ago.
Like many others, Hamza and some of his relatives are stuck in a legal limbo, a common occurrence for refugees and asylum seekers in the southeast Asian nation.
"He is well, sleeps next to me in the cell. But he gets bored and is scared," Hamza's brother-in-law, Omar Ahmed Abdullahi, 28, who along with the boy's brother, is also being held at the IDC, told EFE.
Thailand has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention, meaning asylum seekers and refugees who flee to the so-called Land of Smiles live in constant fear of detention and possible repatriation once their visas expire.
The visitor's room at the detention center is a cacophony of detainees and their visitors shouting across two fences a meter apart that divide them.
Dressed in an orange t-shirt with "detainee" written on it in Thai, Omar says that the Thai authorities want to extradite him to Somalia along with his 22-year-old brother Abdullahi and 13-year-old Hamza.
Sources from the detention center told EFE that detainees are deported to their home countries only when they are not recognized as refugees, but declined to comment on Hamza's case.
"I need some country to help me and my family. Canada is a good country," Omar, who worked as a cook in Somalia and now works occasionally as an interpreter, told EFE.
His wife, Hamda, now lives alone in a one-room apartment with her four young children - aged 1, 3, 4 and 5 - in Bangkok. They have never gone to school and survive on food and clothes that are donated to them by a local mosque.
The room is bare except for a bed, a refrigerator, a television and small cupboard, with some basic utensils to cook on the tiny balcony.
Hamda said that the family escaped to Thailand in 2015 because of threats and violence they faced in their hometown of Mogadishu after their home was bombed, killing one of her brothers.
She said that they were given refugees status by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), but since Thai authorities, having not signed the Refugee Convention, consider them illegal immigrants, they must check in at the detention center twice a month.
Previously, they had allowed to return home afterwards, but on Nov. 3, the police told them that the male adults, Omar and Abdullahi, would be held at the IDC.
"With four kids I cannot take care of him, but Hamza cannot wash, get dressed or eat by himself. My husband helps him do it all," Hamda said; for that reason, she said, they decided to let the 13-year-old stay at the center.
The deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, Phil Robertson, said it was "outrageous" that Hamza was not being provided the treatment he needs in the cramped conditions of the IDC.
"It's cruel and unnecessary for Thailand to be detaining this boy with Down's Syndrome", Robertson told EFE.
"The Thai government is exposing him to possible serious illness or even death," by keeping Hamza in "cramped and unhygienic conditions" without access to adequate medical attention.
He called for immediate release of the three Somalis and the end of detention for refugees and asylum seekers in the country.
Hamda clings to the hope that they might be granted asylum in a third country and be allowed to leave Thailand.
But in a message to EFE, the UNHCR said that less than one percent of refugees around the world are taken in annually, and the number of potential destination countries continue to decline so that only the "most vulnerable" asylum seekers are taken.
According to UNHCR, in the urban areas of Thailand there are some 7,000 refugees and asylum seekers from 45 different countries, including 99,000 from Myanmar in shelter camps along the border.
https://www.efe.com/efe/english/wor...s-syndrome-held-in-thailand/50000262-3938701#
Hamza, a 13-year-old Somali refugee with Down's Syndrome, has spent most of his days in an overcrowded cell at the Immigration Detention Center in the Thai capital since he was detained five months ago.
Like many others, Hamza and some of his relatives are stuck in a legal limbo, a common occurrence for refugees and asylum seekers in the southeast Asian nation.
"He is well, sleeps next to me in the cell. But he gets bored and is scared," Hamza's brother-in-law, Omar Ahmed Abdullahi, 28, who along with the boy's brother, is also being held at the IDC, told EFE.
Thailand has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention, meaning asylum seekers and refugees who flee to the so-called Land of Smiles live in constant fear of detention and possible repatriation once their visas expire.
The visitor's room at the detention center is a cacophony of detainees and their visitors shouting across two fences a meter apart that divide them.
Dressed in an orange t-shirt with "detainee" written on it in Thai, Omar says that the Thai authorities want to extradite him to Somalia along with his 22-year-old brother Abdullahi and 13-year-old Hamza.
Sources from the detention center told EFE that detainees are deported to their home countries only when they are not recognized as refugees, but declined to comment on Hamza's case.
"I need some country to help me and my family. Canada is a good country," Omar, who worked as a cook in Somalia and now works occasionally as an interpreter, told EFE.
His wife, Hamda, now lives alone in a one-room apartment with her four young children - aged 1, 3, 4 and 5 - in Bangkok. They have never gone to school and survive on food and clothes that are donated to them by a local mosque.
The room is bare except for a bed, a refrigerator, a television and small cupboard, with some basic utensils to cook on the tiny balcony.
Hamda said that the family escaped to Thailand in 2015 because of threats and violence they faced in their hometown of Mogadishu after their home was bombed, killing one of her brothers.
She said that they were given refugees status by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), but since Thai authorities, having not signed the Refugee Convention, consider them illegal immigrants, they must check in at the detention center twice a month.
Previously, they had allowed to return home afterwards, but on Nov. 3, the police told them that the male adults, Omar and Abdullahi, would be held at the IDC.
"With four kids I cannot take care of him, but Hamza cannot wash, get dressed or eat by himself. My husband helps him do it all," Hamda said; for that reason, she said, they decided to let the 13-year-old stay at the center.
The deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, Phil Robertson, said it was "outrageous" that Hamza was not being provided the treatment he needs in the cramped conditions of the IDC.
"It's cruel and unnecessary for Thailand to be detaining this boy with Down's Syndrome", Robertson told EFE.
"The Thai government is exposing him to possible serious illness or even death," by keeping Hamza in "cramped and unhygienic conditions" without access to adequate medical attention.
He called for immediate release of the three Somalis and the end of detention for refugees and asylum seekers in the country.
Hamda clings to the hope that they might be granted asylum in a third country and be allowed to leave Thailand.
But in a message to EFE, the UNHCR said that less than one percent of refugees around the world are taken in annually, and the number of potential destination countries continue to decline so that only the "most vulnerable" asylum seekers are taken.
According to UNHCR, in the urban areas of Thailand there are some 7,000 refugees and asylum seekers from 45 different countries, including 99,000 from Myanmar in shelter camps along the border.
https://www.efe.com/efe/english/wor...s-syndrome-held-in-thailand/50000262-3938701#
