Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon addresses a press conference
The Sindh government on Friday sought to allay concerns over Afghan children being imprisoned in the province’s jails, with Information Minister Sharjeel Memon clarifying that while 178 children were being detained with their mothers for illegal immigration, they were not under arrest.
Addressing a press conference in Karachi after a picture of children in jail went viral on social media, triggering outrage from activists and politicians, he said 129 Afghan women were imprisoned for illegal immigration, adding that under law their children stayed with them but were not under arrest. “The law states that if any child is under the age of seven years, they may be allowed to stay with their mother in jail,” he said. “Where will the children go when their father is also in jail?” he said, insisting that the viral picture did not show any jail of Sindh.
“The picture is not from any Sindh jail,” he stressed, adding that the children were kept as “inmates” but not “prisoners.” Claiming that the Federal Investigation Agency took any arrested individuals to court, he said of the 129 arrested women, 75 were under-trial, while 54 had been convicted to two months’ imprisonment. “Their conviction will end in January,” he said. “Nobody has been sentenced to jail for more than two months,” he added.
“If a person lives illegally in any country, the government takes action and deals with them according to the law,” he stressed, adding that this applied to all foreign nationals, including Nigerians and Bangladeshis. He said all convicts—along with their children—would be deported immediately upon completing their prison terms. Showing a video of a women’s jail in Karachi where children were being detained with their mothers, he said they were provided with schooling, food and medical facilities. Any media can be granted permission to visit the facilities for verification, he added.
The viral photo shared by a lawyer that triggered the backlash against the Sindh government
Earlier, reacting to the viral photo, Prime Minister’s Strategic Reforms Unit head Salman Sufi had said the government was working on a strategy to change how underage children were detained in adult jails with their parents.
According to a report issued by the National Commission for Human Rights, there are 139 Afghan women in the Women’s Prison of Karachi, along with 165 children under-9. Additionally, it said, 111 Afghan juveniles aged 14-18 were housed in the Youth Offenders Industrial School. All the under-trial and convicted Afghanistan in jails, it said, were illegal migrants.