Open Doors: anti-Christian persecution grows with North Korea always in the lead
The World Watch List 2025, a list of the 50 countries with extreme levels of oppression, has been released for the period from October 2023 to September 2024. Violence is up in Central Asia, most notably in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. In Myanmar, Christians have been caught up in the “ongoing fighting”. Pakistan and India remain among the countries most at risk. The situation is improving in Indonesia.
Rome (AsiaNews) – Anti-Christian persecution is growing all over the world. Over a year, the number of heavily persecuted and discriminated Christians for reasons of their faith jumped from 365 to 380 million: one in seven globally.
North Korea has been the country most opposed to Christianity for years. But rampant authoritarianism in Central Asia is also worrying sign, even in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, for example, where violence against churches, and restrictions on freedom of association are increasing.
This alarming picture emerges from the annual report by Open Doors, a Christian advocacy NGO. From October 2023 to September 2024, 4,476 Christians were killed and 3,944 were victims of abuse, while 7,000 attacks were carried out against churches, as well as 28,000 on homes or shops owned by Christians.
The Evangelical organisation, which has defended the rights of Christian communities of all denominations in the world since 1955, released its annual World Watch List 2025 (WWL) with the list of the 50 countries with the highest level of persecution.
The report is based on the contribution of 4,000 people, including local sources, researchers and analysts. Since 2016, persecution has grown steadily. As in 2024, 13 countries – including eight in Asia and the Middle East – come in with the highest level, out of the approximately 100 countries monitored.
Open Doors focused on six aspects of Christian life – private life, family, community, church, public life, violence – and considers four types of communities - migrants, non-traditional, converts and members of historic Churches.
As far as Asia is concerned, North Korea has had a zero tolerance for Christians for years, the report points out with 50,000 to 70,000 Christians held in forced labour camps.
Fugitives are subjected to “brutal interrogations" after they are "forcibly repatriated”, mainly from China. The climate of repression by the North Korean regime has forced Christians into a “hidden Church”. Here, as in Afghanistan, the Christian faith is lived "totally underground”.
Afghanistan, which has been again under Taliban rule since 2021, is 10th on the WWL. “Many Christians have been killed (in a real manhunt), many have fled abroad, while a small number has managed to hide.”
In Iran (9th position), Christians are "forced to meet in small groups at home", reports Open Doors.
Myanmar moves up the sad ranking for the first time, reaching 13th place among the countries with an extreme level of oppression. As in Yemen (ranked 3rd), civil war has entrapped Christians in the “ongoing war situation", Open Doors points out.
After the country plunged into civil war after the 2021 military coup, over 100,000 Christians are “languishing in displacement camps” in Kachin state alone, while the “army increasingly attacks Christian churches where they are suspected of harboring insurgents.”
Ethnic rebel forces and “groups benefitting from a drug trade and other lawless activities” are also persecuting Christians.
The 2025 report highlights the worsening situation of Christian communities in Central Asia. The case of Kyrgyzstan is emblematic, which had the “biggest move on the list”, from 61st to 47th place”.
Open Doors cites the hostile acts against a Christian organisation in Karakul and the Catholic Church of St Nicholas in Talas. Such incidents raise fears for Kyrgyzstan’s future, as President Sadyr Japarov is “concentrating power”.
Kazakhstan moves up by nine places into 38th position; “at least 20 Christian women were sexually abused because of their religion, and at least as many were forcibly married to Muslim men.” Police reportedly raided “four worship meetings of three unregistered Protestant communities in southern Kazakhstan.”
South Asia remains in the top 10 list with Pakistan in eighth position, the second nation in the world for the most anti-Christian violence after Nigeria (where 3,100 Christians were killed), Open Doors reports, largely due to the country’s blasphemy legislation, which affects Christians, 1.8 per cent of the population, "disproportionately".
India remains in 11th place. "For years, we have been denouncing the decline of the fundamental freedoms of the Christian minority, the target of violence and discrimination," reads the new report. In the period under review, 20 Christians were killed, more than 2,000 detained without trial in prison or psychiatric hospitals, and 459 churches or Christian public properties were attacked.
Not all is gloom. The WWL 2025 also has some encouraging news. In Indonesia, extreme violence against Christians is down over the previous year. Since October 2023, "documented killings of Christians for religious reasons and attacks on churches have decreased," says Open Doors. This change might seem statistically minor, but is extremely significant, and sees the Southeast Asian nation move from 42nd to 59th place.
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19/01/2022 18:09
15/06/2022 11:36
