KWALA LAMBOUR, Saturday, November 03, 2018 (WAFA) – President Mahmoud Abbas issued on Saturday orders to follow up on the case of several Palestinian woman refugees and their children held in Thai jails, according to an official at the Palestinian embassy in Malaysia.

He said a number of Palestinian women and their children currently held in Thai jails for overstaying their visa have appealed to President Abbas to intervene to help them and end their ordeal.

Activists have been organizing campaigns to help Palestinians in Thailand who arrived there from Syria escaping war and death.

The Thai authorities have arrested them for overstaying their visas and kept them in overcrowded and dismal detention centers with criminals, drug traffickers and sec offenders, according to the activists.

The authorities treat the refugees, estimated at 600 comprised of elderly and young families, as criminals rather than asylum seekers.

The Palestinian embassy in Malaysia follows up on Palestinians in Thailand.

M.K.