UKBA: Stop Deportations to Iran - sign the petition here
'
... we want the human rights record of the Iranian government to be
seen for what it is throughout the world, because it is utterly
unacceptable to anyone who cares about basic human rights anywhere on
earth ...' William Hague, House of Commons debate, 14/09/10
The
appalling human rights record of the Iranian government is
well-documented, and many will be aware that following the disputed 2009
presidential election the situation became worse still. Iran currently
ranks at #158 of 167 on the ‘Democracy Index’*, below, for example,
Libya, Sudan and Zimbabwe, and #175 of 178 on the ‘Press Freedom
Index’*. However, since the revolutionary events in North Africa and the
Middle East in early 2011, the Iranian government has surpassed even
its own previous actions, with a crackdown of unprecedented brutality,
in an attempt to ensure that the wave of democratic revolution has no
chance of reaching Iran.
Although already leading the world in
executions per capita, in January 2011 alone the Iranian government
executed at least 92 opponents to the regime, and the real figure is
likely to be significantly higher. Repression of people the government
considers a threat has reached a new intensity, with thousands of
campaigners, journalists, lawyers and ordinary protestors in prison, to
face torture of various forms and, as per above, quite possibly eventual
execution.
Some Iranians facing these horrors
manage to leave, and come to countries like the UK, where we have a
proud history of offering asylum. However, currently the UKBA is shaming
this tradition by deporting many Iranians back into situations of grave
danger. This is unacceptable. We should be unequivocally opposing the
atrocities in Iran, rather than sending refugees back to face them anew.
When people flee for their lives, they don’t always have time
to conscientiously collect all of their official documentation, and put
together a body of evidence to support the asylum claim that they will
make in the country they arrive in. When they do arrive, exhausted,
psychologically drained, and possibly speaking little of the language of
the new country, they are not always able to tell their story properly.
It is hard to see how anybody with the slightest bit of common sense
and knowledge of world news could fail to understand this, and recognize
that currently there are likely to be very many Iranians in dire need
of asylum. However, even in many cases where asylum claimants have
presented a highly coherent and obviously genuine story and need for
asylum, the UKBA has still carried out enforced removal.
With the current situation in Iran being as it is, this must halt immediately—to do otherwise is to not only
condone, but facilitate state persecution by the Iranian government,
and is a complete abdication by the UK government of its humanitarian
duty.
Sign the petition urging the UKBA to stop deporting to Iran here
*Economist Assessment Unit ‘Democracy Index’ *Reporters Without Borders’ ‘Press Freedom Index’