Karachi (February 10, 2023): A delegate of Immigration Detention from the Australian Red Cross (ARC), Hannah Jakubenko, and officials from the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) and National Headquarters (NHQ) of the Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) visited the Sindh Branch of the PRCS and organized a peer-to-peer exchange workshop from February 6–8, 2023, in Karachi.
According to the press release, the workshop’s purpose was to give exposure to the staff of the Restoring Family Links (RFL) program working in immigration detention, particularly about contemporary tools, techniques, and skills, and raise their level of protection work in Sindh prisons. Speaking to attendees, Hanna said immigration detention services focus on preventing and minimizing harm and suffering to people in detention. The Australian Red Cross has been providing services to people in immigration detention in Australia for over thirty years now. She added that ARC is still the only humanitarian organization that visits all detention facilities on a regular basis in Australia. Hannah stated, “I am really impressed and would want to appreciate PRCS activities in Pakistan generally and in Sindh particularly.
Kanwar Waseem, PRCS-Sindh Provincial Secretary, suggested to the program officials at the closing ceremony that there is now a dire need to popularize and disseminate the RFL services to the masses widely. He stated that the Restoring Family Links initiatives might assist the public in locating people, exchanging messages, reuniting families, and clarifying the fate of missing persons.
Earlier in the visit, the ARC delegate and PRCS-Sindh Provincial Secretary also met with IG Prisons and Correctional Facilities Kazi Nazir Ahmed. IG Prisons commended the cooperation of the PRCS and ICRC and remembered the recent distribution of personal hygiene packages to the Afghan female and children’s inmates at the Central Prison for Women and Correctional Facilities and Youthful Offenders Industrial School in Karachi. In addition, he hoped that the PRCS would always be one step ahead when there is a need on humanitarian grounds.
