Defend Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Turkey

Hambastegi English Number 120, March 11, 2002
Paper of the International Federation of Iranian Refugees (IFIR)
Editor: Maryam Namazie; Assistant Editor: Javad Aslani
http://www.hambastegi.org

In This Issue:
* Defend Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Turkey, by Keyvan Javid
* Another Eleven Sentenced to Death and Four Women Flogged in Iran
* We will not Budge! About Mona Sahlin and Margareta Winberg's 
proposed plan to the Swedish Government, By Mahin Alipour, Parvin 
Kaboli, Sara Mohammad, Halaleh Rafeh and Khalil Keyvan
* Free Hadi and Sheikhi
* Sign Petition against UNHCR's Violations of Refugees Rights in 
Turkey
**********************************************************************
************
* Defend Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Turkey
Keyvan Javid

On February 28, the International Federations of Iranian and Iraqi 
Refugees have initiated a campaign against the United Nations High 
Commissioner for Refugees' (UNHCR) anti-refugee policies and in 
defence of thousands of Iraqi, Iranian and Afghan refugees and asylum 
seekers in Turkey. 

Living Conditions

Thousands of refugees and asylum seekers are living in inhuman 
conditions in Turkey. They do not receive any financial support from 
the UNHCR and are denied access to free health care while their 
claims are being determined, a process that could take several years. 
Even those eventually recognised by the UNHCR do not automatically 
get financial assistance. Add to this the fact that asylum seekers 
and refugees are denied the right to work in Turkey and the tragedy 
becomes all the more clear. As a result of these policies, asylum 
seekers and refugees are faced with dire poverty, serious health 
risks, hunger and homelessness.

Legal Status

Upon entry to Turkey, asylum seekers are divided into two groups. 
Those without documents are forced to register themselves and live in 
towns bordering countries from which they have fled. Fear of being 
kidnapped by Islamic states and groups, deported back to persecution, 
and brutalised by the Turkish police are main concerns of refugees 
and asylum seekers. Those arriving with documentation are transferred 
to central towns surrounding Ankara. All refugees and asylum seekers 
are denied freedom of movement or the right to choose city of 
residence. They are denied the right to organise and protest; 
activists, especially those linked with the International Federations 
who become known to the authorities are often harassed and 
threatened. The UNHCR benefits from the dispersal policy of refugees 
which impedes the right to expression and association. Often times, 
it is the UNHCR that informs the authorities of refugee protests 
which are then met with violence, arrests, and even deportations.

Determination Procedures

Asylum seekers must register with the Turkish authorities within ten 
days of arrival otherwise they will be deemed 'illegal' by the 
government. They must also register with the UNHCR; the UNHCR and 
government determine status separately. Since non-European asylum 
seekers and refugees cannot reside permanently in Turkey, they are 
only issued temporary stay permits. Those recognised are resettled to 
safer third countries. 

Determination procedures are extremely long. Those who register with 
the UNHCR wait for approximately 4-6 months to be interviewed in the 
first instance. At best, a decision is reached on their claim in 
another 6 months. Most first instance decisions are rejections. The 
UNHCR does not provide reasons for rejection, making it impossible 
for asylum seekers to defend their claims. After appeal, asylum 
seekers have to wait another several months for a second interview. 
IFIR knows of a number of cases that are waiting from one to two 
years for a second interview. Often times, case files are closed 
without a second interview. During this time, the UNHCR does not 
respond to calls or letters of asylum seekers nor advises them on 
reasons for these delays. The UNHCR's legal officers, translators and 
staff generally treat asylum seekers with contempt. 

Join our Campaign

There are innumerable other examples of rightlessness in Turkey. This 
intolerable situation must change. We have often witnessed 
governments and the UNHCR backing down under the face of 
international pressure. Once again, we must send the UNHCR a barrage 
of faxes and protest letters demanding that they respect refugee and 
asylum rights in Turkey. Undoubtedly, this support and solidarity of 
organisations, individuals, labour union and parties, will bring 
about critical changes.

* Another Eleven Sentenced to Death and Four Women Flogged in Iran

Eleven political prisoners accused of associating with the Kurdistan 
Democratic Party in Iran or Komala have been sentenced to death. 
According to Amnesty International, three of them - Muhammad 
Sharverani, Khaled Faraidouni and Nader Afani - are believed to be 
detained in Mahabad prison. Three others are believed to be held in 
Orumieh. They are 27-year-old Hasan Mahmoudi; 50-year-old Khaled 
Shoghi, who was reportedly forcibly returned from Turkey and arrested 
in 1997, and has reportedly been tortured; and Kheder Viesi. Saleh 
Goudarzi is reportedly detained in Sanandaj prison. Jalil Zeva'i was 
18 when he was arrested in 1993; he has been in prison ever since, 
and has reportedly been tortured. Rasul Abdollahpour was reportedly 
arrested in 1994, and Anvar Alizadeh in 1997. Mohammad Esmailzadeh or 
Esmaili, aged 35, was reportedly arrested in 1996 or 1997; there is 
an unconfirmed report that he suffered a leg injury some time after 
he was imprisoned, which still causes him pain, and for which he has 
been denied any medical treatment. Also at risk is Mohammad Mehdi 
Zaliye, aged 32; he was reportedly arrested in 1992, and is alleged 
to be suffering from 'neurological problems caused by brutal mental 
and physical torture'. Another five men have recently been condemned 
to death in Ahvaz, apparently for opposing the government's policy of 
land seizures in the region. They are named as Fadhil Muqaddam, Rahim 
Sawari, Amir Sa'idi, Hashem Bawi and 'Abbas Sherhani. Previously, on 
27 January, five Arab men were hanged in Ahvaz, southwestern Iran and 
on 24 January Karim Tuzhali, a refugee deported from Turkey was 
executed in Iran after three years in prison.

Moreover, on March 9, one day after International Women's Day, 
officials of the Islamic regime flogged 4 women in the city centre of 
Kermanshah for transgressing Islamic rules. The people in the centre 
booed officials and forced them to retreat.

The IFIR unequivocally opposes the death penalty and any form of 
cruel and inhuman treatment and punishment. The Islamic regime of 
Iran must be condemned for executing, imprisoning, flogging, and 
torturing innumerable people in Iran.

IFIR calls on progressive organisations and individuals to protest 
these inhumane sentences and brutalities by the Islamic Republic of 
Iran and intervene to prevent further tragedies. Faced with a wave of 
strikes and industrial unrests especially by teachers and nurses, the 
Islamic Republic of Iran has stepped up its repressive measures. We 
too must step up our pressure against the regime and in defence of 
those resisting it.

* We will not Budge!
About Mona Sahlin and Margareta Winberg's proposed plan to the 
Swedish Government
By Mahin Alipour, Parvin Kaboli, Sara Mohammad, Halaleh Rafeh and 
Khalil Keyvan

Mona Sahlin, the Swedish Minister for Integration, and Margareta 
Winberg, Minister of Gender Equality, have eventually announced their 
proposal for the Swedish government's action plan in defence of 
vulnerable girls in patriarchal and traditional families. The main 
themes of this proposal are increasing the minimum age of marriage 
from 15 to 18, declaring that the state will side with girls and 
young women, that no culture, tradition and religion will have 
supremacy over the individual rights of women, increased victim 
support, improvements in determining women's asylum claims, and 
evaluating further options for integration.

Though the proposed plan ignores many important issues, from our 
point of view, the recognition of this extent of demands by the said 
Ministers and their acknowledgement of the destructive nature of 
culture, religion and tradition (which Swedish politicians have 
defended under the pretext of respect for cultures and racist 
cultural relativism) is a great victory for those of us who have 
fought for these demands for years. We see this as a victory for our 
campaign and will insist on the realisation of our other essential 
demands and intensify our efforts to this end. For many years, we 
have declared our clear, specific and extremely human demands in 
defence of women, girls, and children of Islamic, patriarchal, and 
traditional immigrant families, have fought for them, and have warned 
the government and ruling parties about the abuse of women and 
children in these families. It is regrettable that extremely 
important and clear demands such as the prohibition of religious 
education and schools for children and compulsory veiling for young 
girls have been ignored in the proposed plan, thereby overtly 
overlooking the fundamental rights of girls and children in these 
families. 

Ms. Mona Sahlin and Ms. Margareta Winberg only see the tip of the 
iceberg - that is they only see honour killings. They turn a blind 
eye to a world of physical and psychological abuses, the daily 
destruction of the beautiful and natural desires of thousands of 
children, the brainwashing of children with religious superstitions 
and backward, misogynous ideas, the veiling of children - a symbol of 
women's slavery, the denial and discrimination of girls' access to 
music, dance and many other games and recreations and innumerable 
other forms of daily harassment and abuse of girls and children in 
Islamic and patriarchal families. They do not want to accept that 
these killings are the outcome and result of the very culture and 
religion which a handful of reactionary mullahs are currently 
hammering into the heads of innocent children to kill the human 
spirit in them and turn them into honour worshipers;. They do not 
want to accept that children have no religion, intolerance or 
prejudice, and have not registered in any religious sect, are not the 
property of their parents and that it is the responsibility of law 
and society to protect them from the harm of religion and religious 
sects. They do not want to accept that in the heart of Europe they 
have succumbed to a religion and a culture that tens of millions of 
men and women in Iran, Iraq, Algeria and Turkey despise and are 
trying to get rid of from their lives. The politicians and the ruling 
parties in Sweden have chosen Mullahs over children. 

It would have been better if Ms. Mona Sahlin and Ms. Margareta 
Winberg had not capitulated to Islam and the Islamists. Society 
requires a fundamental solution and the Ministers do not doubt that 
if they chose a principled and radical policy, they would be 
supported by the majority of society and immigrants in Sweden. They 
did not want to do so. The Swedish government and politicians are an 
impediment in the realisation of people's fundamental rights. We, 
however, are obliged to defend the civil rights of women, children 
and people and will not budge. As the representatives of society's 
and immigrants' secular, progressive, modern and pro-equality 
elements, and given the extensive support our demands have received, 
we will intensify the struggle for the realisation of these demands. 
Our demands are so human and clear that is not possible to resist 
them for long. We are determined to recapture, step by step, all the 
trenches that the Islamists have imposed in European countries in the 
context of European states' right wing policies during the Cold War. 
In the same way that in countries like Iran we are recapturing much 
larger trenches, our movement is more than ever before progressing; 
this is clear for all to see. 

Once again, we declare our demands and call on all pro-equality, 
progressive and children's rights organisations to support our 
demands and impel the Swedish government to respect people's 
fundamental rights. The time to put an end to medieval laws has 
arrived. 

1. Immediate prohibition of religious schools and education and in 
the meanwhile the inspection of all religious schools, particularly 
Islamic schools. 
2. Immediate prohibition of veiling of children.
3. Immediate prohibition of children's circumcision and genital 
mutilation.
4. An end to all subsidies and government grants and payments to 
religious organisations and institutions.
5. Equality before the law for all; the prohibition of reduced 
sentences for those who kill or abuse children and women, and the 
imposition of a maximum sentence for religious, ethnic and 
patriarchal crimes.
6. An end to ghettoisation and the adoption of an active and 
immediate policy for the integration of immigrants. 

Mahin Alipour, Spokeswoman for the Campaign in Defence of Women's 
Right in Iran, Stockholm
Parvin Kaboli, Spokeswoman for the Campaign in Defence of Women's 
Right in Iran, Sweden
Sarah Mohammad, Director of 'Never forget Pela'
Halaleh Rafeh, Spokeswoman for the Campaign in Defence of Women's 
Right in Iraq, Sweden
Khalil Keyvan, Secretary of the Worker-communist Party of Iran, 
Organisation Abroad, Sweden

* Free Hadi and Sheikhi

Mohiaddin Hadi and Salam Sheikhi, two Iranian asylum seekers, have 
been detained and imprisoned under inhumane conditions by the 
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, for the 
past several months. Hadi and Sheikhi are amongst thousands of 
Iranians forced to flee the Islamic regime of Iran. Many head towards 
the city of Soleimaniyeh to approach the UNHCR office in that city. 
This city has increasingly become unsafe for Iranians due to the 
collaboration between the ruling party in the region, the Patriotic 
Union of Kurdistan, and the Iranian regime. Fearing for their lives, 
Hadi and Sheikhi fled to Erbil, only to be arrested by the ruling 
party in that city - the KDP.

The International Federation of Iranian Refugees condemns the arrests 
and demands that both be released immediately. IFIR holds the KDP and 
the UNHCR responsible for their safety and well-being. We call on 
groups and individuals to send letters of protest to the KDP, Central 
Office: kdppress@xxxxxxx, Fax: +87376160321; European Office: 
kdpeurope@xxxxxxxxxxx, Fax: +493079743746; UNHCR office in Iraqi 
Kurdistan: irqba@xxxxxxxx; Geneva: hqpr00@xxxxxxxx, Fax: +41227398643.

* Sign Petition against UNHCR's Violations of Refugees Rights in 
Turkey

UNHCR Ankara 
Sancak Mah. 
12. Cadde 212 Sokak No.3
06550 Cankaya 
Ankara, Turkey
Tel: +90 312-4411696
Fax: +90 312-4412173 
E-mail: Turan@xxxxxxxx 

We, the undersigned, condemn the inhuman situation and rightlessness 
of Iranian, Iraqi and Afghan refugees and refugee claimants in Turkey 
and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees' (UNHCR) treatment and 
performance vis-à-vis thousands of refugees and claimants in Turkey. 
We demand that the UNHCR 1. Recognise the right to asylum for all 
those fleeing Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan, especially women and 
children; 2. Recognise Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan as unsafe 
countries; 3. Immediately re-open and review all closed case files; 
4. Improve the determination procedures, including the disclosure of 
the reasons for rejection, increasing the number of appeals and 
interviews and expediting reviews; 5. Provide basic living and health 
needs for refugees and refugee claimants and their residence in 
cities away from the border areas and outside the reach of terrorist 
agents; 6. Intervene resolutely against deportations. The UNHCR is 
responsible for the threats to the lives and safety of deportees; 7. 
Immediately resettle those recognised as refugees to a safe third 
country, including those Iranians who have fled Iraqi Kurdistan for 
fear of their lives and the inactivity of the UNHCR offices in 
Northern Iraq; and 8. Recognise the rights of refugees and claimants 
to protest.

Name
Organisation
Country

Copies of letters can be sent to:
UNHCR Geneva
UNHCR, HQPRO 2, Case Postale 2500
CH-1211 Geneva 2 Depot, Switzerland
Fax: 011-41-22-739-7353
Tel: 011-41-22-739-8643
E-mail: Hqpr00@xxxxxxxx

International Federation of Iranian Refugees (IFIR)
P. O. Box 27236, London N11 27F
Tel: +44 (0) 7730 107 337
ifir@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.hambastegi.org

Next Issue: Monday 11 March 2002

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Maryam Namazie
Executive Director
International Federation of Iranian Refugees (IFIR)
P. O. Box 27236, London N11 27F
Tel: +44 (0) 7730 107 337
ifir@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.hambastegi.org 



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