Visiting IDC – Today was a challenging day.
The Immigration Detention Center (IDC) is difficult to find and travel to when you have to rely on public transportation. It is over a mile walk to and from the nearest subway line. Calvary Baptist Church orders a large amount of Pakistani food to deliver to the detainees for each visitor. We also purchase other essentials like water, bread, dairy, fresh fruits and vegetables on the way to the IDC.
Today, I went solo and I was to see someone new that was recently “trapped.” It is completely exhausting carrying by hand several heavy bags of food in hot steamy weather on very iffy sidewalks that is crowded with people going about their business. Your hands and feet burn with each step. Your head spins knowing that you must get to the IDC by a certain time to fill out the visitation application or you will be denied visitation. By the time you enter the visitation area you are tired and soaked in sweat.
When you see the smile of the person you have come to see, sometimes for the first time, in the terrible conditions they are enduring, your exhaustion completely disappears. Your little suffering is nothing compared to the person standing across from you, who is enduring more than you can imagine, day and night. You bring a little sympathy, comfort, money and a taste of home to somebody in a desperate situation, you realize and are thankful that it is a privilege and honor given to you by God to serve others as Jesus gave His life for me.
I visited an Ahmadi Muslim man from Pakistan who was “trapped” one month ago after arriving in three months ago to find work to support his wife and family. In Pakistan he could not find enough work to support his family of five, four daughters and a son who has a brain and back injury. He could not communicate with his family back home while at IDC because he had no money and they do not know of his current status. He does not know anyone in Bangkok who can help him. He has applied for UN asylum refugee status and it will be many months before his case is reviewed. He is living a nightmare having his hopes and dreams to support his family dashed because he was unfortunate to be caught by police officers whom he was not able to “pay” to continue his dreams. Please pray for him and his family, for safety reasons I cannot disclose his name.
He has many needs at IDC. On this visit I gave him money call his family and to use at the commissary at the IDC. I will provide for him what I can while we are able. To support him and others detained at IDC we need your help. Please donate to our fund to help him and others like him.