By Ludovica Iaccino
Sadia Khan is a Pakistani human rights blogger who has been living in hiding for a long time. Too long.
Fearing for her life due to her investigative work, Sadia, along with
her 10-year-old sister Amala and their mother, fled to Sri Lanka in
January 2012, after the ISI, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence,
allegedly tried to kill her.
When Sadia left Pakistan, she hoped she could find a better life in the neighboring country Sri Lanka.
However, this did not happen.
I first wrote about Sadia and her sad story in May 2014,
hoping that the Sri Lankan government could grant her and her family
refugee status and therefore special protection in the country.
Since we last spoke, the Sri Lankan government expelled hundreds of
asylum seekers from the country and Sadia is being neglected basic
human rights.
This is what she told me:
“We are going through a horror. Sri Lankan Governement has
ordered the deportation of all asylum seekers, they say whoever doesn’t
have Sri Lankan visa would be deported.
Our resettlement case is stuck in Canadian embassy.
They want me to go through a medical check-up which includes an
identification process and it is very risky for me to be identified by
the Sri Lankan authorities.
The Canadian embassy has taken out loads of refugees from Sri Lanka ignoring my extremely dangerous situation.
We remain in hiding more scared then we were before.
I requested the Canadian embassy to allow me to go on with my medical
examination without being identified by the Sri lankan staff. I asked
them if they can send some embassy staff with me to the hospital, so I
can do my medical examination with an anonymous name. I also told them
that I am ready to pay all my bills myself but they refused.
Now my life is in extreme danger: Sri Lankan police is looking
everywhere for Pakistanis. In this situation we can be very easily
caught and deported the next day.
I wrote against the Khilafat: a common goal for Islamic terrorists
and now my own life is in extreme danger; I am wanted not only by
Pakistan but by all those who want the Khilafat. I am being followed on
internet by members of ISIS.
Please write about my help-less situation once more and also please
write to Canadian embassy or some other embassies in Sri Lanka to save
my life.
Please also ask some of your friends to support us by writing to the embassies or in some other way.”
You can contact the Sri Lankan government and the High Commission of Canada Colombo to enquiry about the asylum seekers situation in the country.
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