Lord David Alton of Liverpool has said a Pakistani pastor told him he and his six-year-old son were sharing a single cell with 95 other Christians. In all 4000 Pakistani Christians are either illegals or being held in detention centres in Thailand, he said.
The peer was in Thailand to meet with United Nations officials on the Christian's behalf. Many of them have fled persecution in their native Pakistan, where citizens can be extremely hostile to the Christians.
For example, Christian man Aleem Masih was recently murdered for marrying a Muslim woman who converted to Christianity, while Christian woman Asia Bibi has been on death row for the last six years on blasphemy allegations which she denies.
Mr Alton presented a petition and dossier, calling for their applications to be processed and for their conditions to significantly improve before release.
Specifically, they highlighted:
1) The overcrowding in Thai detention facilities for the Pakistani Christians;
2) The slow process of asylum applications, some of which won't be processed until 2018;
3) The lack of United Nations resources and personnel helping to solve the situation;
4) The lack of legal representation for the detainees;
5) Poor education, translation and healthcare provision, the latter of which has led to detainee deaths, and;
6) And the dismissal of evidence demonstrating Christian persecution in Pakistan.
The peer said: "The exodus from Pakistan is driven by visceral hatred and a fanatical disregard for the rights of minorities.
"In a country where the brave Minister for Minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, can be murdered in broad daylight, where churches are bombed, where an illiterate woman can be sentenced to death of alleged blasphemy charges, where a husband and wife can be burnt alive in front of their young children, and where there is a culture of impunity which rarely leads to those responsible being brought to justice, it is little wonder that many Christians are fleeing for their lives.
"It doubly compounds their suffering when the international community fails to step up to the plate in defence of those who have to endure such pitiless suffering and hardship."
According to Mr Alton's website, United Nations officials have admitted that there is "extreme overcrowding" in the detention centres and that "conditions in Thai prisons are actually better than in the detention centres."
British officials have been monitoring the situation, and Lord Alton has taken evidence from some Pakistani Christians who've fled persecution.
