Australia refuses immediate asylum to Pakistani Christian woman

Asia Bibi was falsely accused of blasphemy in Pakistan and saw her asylum application rejected in the UK

The Australian Government has refused to offer immediate asylum to Asia Bibi, the Christian woman falsely accused of blasphemy in Pakistan. This follows the UK also rejecting her application out of fear for attacks upon their embassies and civilians. According to The British Pakistani Christian Association:

Australia has essentially issued a statement in their refusal of political asylum to Asia. In an abhorrently administrative letter, Australia has essentially told Asia to “queue up,” citing her failure to be granted United Nations (UN) Refugee Status and the pressures on the offshore component of its resettlement programme.

After having spent the past eight years on death row—in solitary confinement—this mother of five children who was falsely accused of committing blasphemy, has been fully acquitted by Pakistan’s Supreme Court and is now in hiding in fear of her life. Indeed, according to Agence France-Presse, thousands of Muslims have recently taken to the streets of Karachi to not only protest against her acquittal, but to also call for her beheading.