Kerry asked to give humanitarian parole to Bangladeshi bloggers

A coalition of free expression and human rights advocacy groups has appealed to US Secretary of State John Kerry to provide temporary visa to Bangladeshi secular writers, bloggers facing threats following brutal killings by extremists.

“We write to urge the US government to provide humanitarian parole for a limited number of high-profile Bangladeshi secularists at imminent risk of attack. “The dire situation that these writers face fits the criteria and high threshold applicable to the granting of humanitarian parole,” said the letter addressed to Kerry. Signatories to the letter include PEN American Centre, the Association of American Publishers, the Centre for Inquiry, City of Asylum Pittsburgh, Freedom House, Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch, and Reporters Without Borders.

Humanitarian parole is a discretionary visa-granting programme intended to provide emergency relief to individuals at risk who would otherwise be inadmissible to the US.

The State Department can appeal to the Department of Homeland Security for the parole in cases of compelling urgency. “Bloggers and writers in Bangladesh have nowhere left to turn, as they face both death threats by extremist groups and fear of arrest on charges of blasphemy by government officials seeking to appease religious authorities,” said Karin Deutsch Karlekar, PEN’s Director of Free Expression Programmes who recently testified at a US Congressional briefing on the subject.

“Dozens of Bangladeshi writers now living in hiding have reached out to our organisations for support and protections their own government is unwilling or unable to provide, creating an insurmountable atmosphere of violence and impunity,” she said.