Many of you have been moved by the story of Fouzia Bibi (click here) and have asked how you might help with her situation. We have drafted here a letter that you can send to your MPs in the west and your respective
Embassies in Pakistan, calling for her to be given Asylum. Emails for Embassies in Islamabad are listed at the end of the proposed message:
I am writing to you concerning the urgent case of Fouzia Sadiq and her family from near Pattoki, Sahur, Pakistan. For a number of generations, her family, have been oppressed though the ongoing scourge of bonded slavery. On 23rd July 2015, she was snatched by her ‘employer’ / landlord, Muhammed Nazir, as she responded to his demand for extra house cleaning. When her family approached the landlord’s house the next day, they were driven back with violence and told that she had converted to Islam and was now the wife and property of Muhammed Nazir. The landlord stopped paying the family even the little he had been giving them and they were starving, and the police initially refused to register an FIR over the incident and deliberately flunked the investigation. Attempts to free her via the legal system failed after the corrupt defence lawyer sided with the perpetrators.
In early February 2016, her brother managed to snatch her from the clutches of the captors and she is now in hiding along with her younger sister and brother, who were targets for the police practice of torturing relatives to force escapees back. Fouzia’s rapists and abductors registered a case after she escaped, claiming she took their gold, a typical tactic, and the police are actively aiding them and harassing the family, including her elderly and disabled parents. This means that despite being the victim of torture and grossest human rights violations with the connivance of the police force and legal system, Fouzia is now technically a fugitive from ‘justice’. We appeal to you to provide urgent and immediate humanitarian visas for Fouzia and her whole family to get to safety outside of Pakistan. They face practically no chance of justice in the courts, as their ‘landlord’ who has so victimized them holds all the power and they none, and previous events have shown the courts and justice system are utterly inadequate this desperate family. They not only have a ‘well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of … religion’, but they are experiencing it now, and they face a serious targeted threat to their life, physical integrity and freedom. We ask that BPCA officers be given every assistance in helping these victims of persecution to safety with the utmost urgency and speed.
UNCHR in Islamabad (click here)
British Embassy in Islamabad
(click here)
Embassy of the United States, Islamabad (click here)
European Delegation, Islamabad (click here)
Australian High Commission , Islamabad (click here)
Canadian High Commission , Islamabad (click here)
Other emabssies can be found using this link (click here)