Immigration Detention Centre Coordinating Committee

“I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” – Matt.25:36

In an average year, nearly three million people have either entered Thailand illegally or have overstayed their visas. Most are migrant workers, victims of human trafficking, asylum-seekers or refugees.

The immigration detention system was established to detain such persons. By far the largest detention facility is the Immigration Detention Center (IDC) on the property of the Royal Thai Immigration Bureau, Suan Phlu Road, Bangkok.

As well as people arrested for immigration offences, all foreign prisoners who have finished their sentences and are awaiting repatriation must pass through IDC.

During an average year, approximately 70,000 men, women and children are detained for various periods of time in IDC. They have no other crimes or charges against them except immigration offences and can return home when they have proper travel documents and one-way tickets to their country.

.An opportunity for Good Will

When you are in a large cell, twenty by four meters, consisting of cement floors and walls, four toilets and a common area, with 40 – 100 people per cell, any help is a divine gift.

The IDC Coordinating Committee

The IDC Coordinating Committee was formed in 1982 to help to relieve the suffering of those held in detention. It normally meets at Christ Church on the second Wednesday of the month at 1:30 pm.

Participating Members of IDCCC Catholic Office for Emergency Relief and Refugees (COERR) Foundation for Women (FFW) Grace Baptist Church International Organization for Migration (IOM) Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Maryknoll United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR)

What we do

*medical program: assistance to detainees, both at their cells and in our clinic

*distribution of supplemental foods to those in need

*release program: contacting embassies, detainees’ families and friends, airlines; and if long-stayers (more than 6 months), finding funds to purchase tickets and travel documents to country of origin

*provide hygiene kits to all the detainees every month (each kit consists of a bar of soap, toothpaste, shampoo and a pack of washing powder, and every three months, one toothbrush)

*cleaning materials for the rooms and toilets

*emergency repairs (fans, TV, water pumps, lights, water filters etc.)

*sending e-mails, faxes

*listening, counselling, advising, comforting

Contact

Bernard Wirth, Immigration Detention Center Coordinating Committee, PO Box 1193, Suan Phlu Post Office, Bangkok 10121, Thailand

TEL (THAILAND): 084-634-2095

bernard@su.ac.th