Pakistani Refugees: Update on the D’Souzas

Thank you, NOR readers! At the end of last year, this magazine printed “A Call for Aid for Pakistani Refugees” (Dec. 2023), requesting contributions to the cause of Michael D’Souza and his family, pious Pakistani Catholics who fled their home in Karachi following years of violent persecution by militant Muslims. Many of you graciously answered that appeal (as did readers of CrisisMagazine.com, which ran a similar petition), contributing more than $50,000 to cover expenses to open an application on the D’Souzas’ behalf with the Canadian government’s Office of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

I am pleased to report that, with the assistance of the nonprofit organization International Christian Voice (ICV), which works to rescue Christians who have suffered for their faith, an application for Michael and his family has been filed with the IRCC, and we are hopeful that sometime this year or next the D’Souzas will be approved to move to Canada and start a new life.

Longtime NOR readers will be familiar with Michael’s story, which I first described in these pages almost a decade ago and which was prominently featured in my 2021 book The Persecuted: True Stories of Courageous Christians Living Their Faith in Muslim Lands. Since I first met Michael and his family in Bangkok, his family was twice detained by Thai immigration authorities and forced to return to Pakistan, where Michael was again violently assaulted by militant Islamic thugs. The D’Souzas attempted (and failed) to flee to Europe and later Sri Lanka. They currently reside in Azerbaijan, where they have found a temporary reprieve from persecution but cannot settle permanently.