Chinese Christians exiled in Thailand taken to court for overstaying visas

A Thai court on Friday began the trial of 28 Chinese Christians accused of overstaying their visa and who were in the country seeking protection from the United Nations refugee agency alleging religious persecution in their country, it said. police.

The Associated Press news agency reported that the Chinese were fined and released on Friday. The Chinese exiles belong to the Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church, also known as the Mayflower Church.

A police official said the group of 63 Christians, including 35 children, who had been arrested on Thursday afternoon would probably not be deported to China.

“No, there won’t be that thing. It’s not going to happen,” Colonel Tawee Kutthalaeng, head of the Nong Prue police station, told BenarNews, an FRG-affiliated news service.

“We did not charge everyone because there were also children. They were accused of overstaying their visas, overstaying, and not renewing their visas.”

Thailand is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, but the principle of non-refoulement under international human rights law states that people cannot be returned to a country where they are likely to be persecuted, tortured, ill-treated or raped. their human rights.

The group of 63 Chinese had fled their homeland in 2019, heading first for South Korea’s Jeju Island, before landing in Thailand last year, according to the RFA Mandarin Service.

Nury Turkel, president of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), expressed concern for Chinese exiles in Thailand.

“Members of the Mayflower Church are at imminent risk of deportation to China, where they will face dire consequences, including imprisonment and torture,” he said in a tweet on Thursday.

According to an American NGO, Freedom House, Christianity has spread rapidly in China since the 1980s, but it is strictly controlled by the state.

“Chinese authorities seek to monitor and control Christians by encouraging them, sometimes by force, to join state-sanctioned churches that are affiliated with ‘patriotic’ associations and run by politically vetted clerics,” reads a 2017 report. freedom house report.

“Religious leaders and parishioners who refuse to register for theological or practical reasons risk having their place of worship closed and facing arrest, beatings, dismissal from employment or imprisonment.”

Certain religions and religious groups, including Christian “house churches” that operate independently of state-sanctioned ones, are heavily persecuted, according to Freedom House’s 2023 Freedom in the world report.

In October, the pastor associated with the Mayflower Church, Pan Yongguang, who is also in Thailand, told RFA that he was afraid of being trapped in an immigration prison and eventually deported to China.

“I can’t fall into their hands. If they find me and put me in an immigration prison, they will take me back to China,” she had said.

“I will not voluntarily return to mainland China and I will not choose to commit suicide.”

“Threats from China have never stopped”

Meanwhile, Deana Brown, an American who was also briefly arrested with the group according to the Associated Press, said on Friday that renewing visas for Chinese citizens was not easy.

She told the AP that when Chinese exiles tried to renew their Thai visas, they were told they had to go to their country’s embassy first.

“We knew (then) that no one could get their visas,” Brown told the AP.

“There was no way, because as soon as they entered the Chinese Embassy they would leave, we would not see them again. They have been hiding ever since.

Brown is the founder of a Texas-based organization called Freedom Seekers International, which says on its website that it “exists to rescue the ‘last resort’ and most persecuted Christians in hostile and restrictive countries.”

The organization says it “is taking the lead role in establishing a new life for them in Tyler, Texas.”

Fu Xiqiu, president of the China Aid Association, a US-based Christian NGO, told RFA on Thursday that one of the church members had been forced to tell Thai authorities where they were staying. That was what prompted the immigration raid and arrest, Fu alleged.

“Based on the way other missing persons have been treated in the past, this must be the CCP mob behind the scenes,” he said, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.

“We call on the international community to urgently help stop the atrocities. We can imagine that if these adults and children return to China, they will definitely be imprisoned and persecuted.”

Fu further alleged that the threats from the Chinese authorities have continued despite the fact that church members are in exile.

“Threats from China have never stopped, including family members being kidnapped, threatened and interrogated,” Fu said.

“Even on Jeju Island, they were threatened with text messages and phone calls from the CCP consulate on Jeju Island, saying they were traitors, treacherous, and endangering national security.”

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service.