Rohingya refugee seeks release of detained wife and daughter
A Rohingya refugee residing in Malaysia has called on Thai authorities to speed up the legal process in a human-trafficking case so that his wife and daughter can be released from detention in Nakhon Si Thammarat and reunited with him.
Rohingya refugee under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Abul Washim bin Hussein Ali, made the call on Wednesday through his Thai lawyer.
The lawyer requested that Pak Phanang Court order the release of the woman and girl, who are among the 90 Rohingyas who have been detained at a Social Development and Human Security Ministry shelter as damaged parties in human trafficking since January 2015.
Ali said he wished to take them to Malaysia before the family would be resettled in the United States by the UN refugee agency.
He also urged the Thai authorities to release all the Rohingya detainees whose close relatives or family members had successfully sought refugee status in other countries.
The man’s wife and daughter, along with other Rohingyas, were rescued in Nakhon Si Thammarat’s Hua Sai district on January 11, 2015 as they were being transported from Phang Nga to Songkhla. They were detained as part of the police’s suppression of a human-trafficking gang.