I am writing to you concerning the current situation of Hakeem Alaraib in Thailand.
The detention and ongoing extradition proceedings in Thailand of Hakeem Alaraib raise a number of serious issues for Australians as well as for expats worldwide. Hakeem was granted asylum by Australia after a thorough vetting process (one of the most stringent asylum processes in the world); authorities concluded that he would face persecution and likely abuse or even death if he were returned to his native Bahrain. Thailand’s consideration of an extradition request by Bahrain, therefore, constitutes the potential overruling of Australia’s extremely careful judgment regarding Hakeem’s safety, and his status and the reasons for which asylum were granted are not included in Thailand’s deliberations.
Australia would not deport Hakeem, nor would any developed country; indeed, Interpol rescinded Bahrain’s Red Notice against Hakeem the moment it was discovered that he had received asylum in Australia due to serious concerns for his safety. Thailand has no extradition treaty with Bahrain, and has full freedom to dismiss the extradition request on the same ground upon which Hakeem was granted asylum.
Anyone involved in business and investment in Thailand, or indeed, anywhere overseas, must see the repercussions if Hakeem is extradited. Australia has granted Hakeem asylum; safety from persecution; security against being surrendered to an authoritarian government with documented human rights violations and a corrupt legal system. If the safety granted by the Australian government is not respected, is not upheld by a country that enjoys good relations with Australia; if Thailand can send Hakeem back to those who falsely arrested him, tortured him, and from whom he fled for his life; then what safety is there for any foreigner in Thailand?
International travelers; businesspeople, tourists, and investors, should feel safe in countries with whom our governments have friendly relations. They have to be safe within those countries, and they should be safe from being handed over to countries that would harm them. if they are not safe, then how friendly are those relations?
As an Australian, I personally lobbied our government to include human rights provisions in our extradition treaty with the UAE; and as someone who has worked for over a decade on behalf of expats unjustly detained in the Gulf States, I am acutely aware of the grave human rights abuses that occur throughout the region. We are leading an effort to ensure that documented human rights violators will be ineligible for requesting extraditions worldwide. Multi-jurisdictional circumvention of due process and defiance of fundamental rights needs to end, and it needs to end today, with Hakeem Alaraib.
We are calling upon you, as a business leader representing Australia in Thailand, to voice your support for Hakeem to the Thai government and call for his immediate release.