Tags
abschiebung, asyl, Asylbewerber, asylum, asylumseeker, australia, Danial Hadikhanloo, Department of Immigration and Citizenship, deportation, Fahamu Refugee Programme, failed, failed asylum seekers, Fakhravan, FIDH, Flüchtling, human rights, Hungarian Helsinki Committe, iran, iranian refugees action network, Ireland, Norge, norway, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, ohchr, Rahim Rostami, refugee, refugee documentation centre, refWorld, rejected asylum seekers, returned, Rostami, the Refugee Law Reader, un, unhcr, پناهنده سیاسی, اخراج متقاضیان پناهندگی, تقاضای پناهندگی
forced deportation
what happens to asylum seekers, whose asylum requests in Europe/in the US/ in … were denied?
what happens to those deported back to Iran?
is there any documentation about their fates?
there is only little info available – further info is greatly appreciated –
please email me !
Jan 2012 – by Ireland: Refugee Documentation Centre – on UNHCR | refworld
-Iran: Treatment of returned failed asylum seekers in Iran
“”In May 2011 Amnesty International notes:
“In February 2011, Rahim Rostami, a 19-year-old member of Iran’s Kurdish minority, who had arrived in Norway as an unaccompanied minor, and whose asylum claim had been rejected by the Norwegian authorities, was forcibly returned by Norway to Iran where he was reportedly arrested. He is believed to still be detained, with bail reportedly having been denied. On 17 February 2011, an article written by a former Supreme Court judge appeared in Iran newspaper, a daily paper published by the Iranian government. Referring to existing laws that enable Iran’s judiciary to bring charges against Iranians for alleged violations of Iranian law committed while outside Iran, the article stated that failed asylum-seekers could be prosecuted for making up accounts of alleged persecution. On 26 April 2011, Kayhan newspaper, which is controlled by the Office of the Supreme Leader, also reported that Iranians are seeking asylum ‘on the pretext of supporting the opposition’. “ (Amnesty International (6 May 2011) Student Activists Held In Iran)
A document in March 2011 released by Iran Human Rights states:
“According to reports that reliable sources have given to Iran Human Rights (IHR), a Kurdish asylum seeker who was extradited from Norway to Iran on February 9th 2011, is in danger of torture and ill-treatment at Tehran’s Evin prison.” (Iran Human Rights (23 March 2011) A Kurdish asylum seeker extradited from Norway to Iran is in danger of torture and ill-treatment at Tehran’s Evin prison)
In May 2011 an article in The Guardian states:
“Six Iranians who have been on hunger strike for 32 days in protest at plans to send them back to Tehran have held a demonstration outside the Home Office amid growing concern over their health.” (The Guardian (6 May 2011) Iranians on hunger strike protest against deportation)
This article also notes:
“The group’s new lawyer, Hani Zubeidi, said their plight had been reported in several countries since the Guardian ran the story – including Iran. ‘They would be in very real danger if they were return now simply because they have been featured critizising the regime even without the fact that they were involved in the anti-regime protests and were tortured.’ “ (ibid)
A report issued in August 2011 by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty notes that:
“The number of Iranians seeking asylum in European countries has risen steadily over the past two years, RFE/RL’s Radio Farda reports.” (Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (18 August 2011) Number Of Iranians Applying For Asylum In Europe Rises) No further information on this issue could be found among sources consulted by the RDC within time constraints.
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from the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship from July 2011
“”Treatment of returned failed asylum seekers
The US State Department reported in 2008 that “[c]itizens returning from abroad occasionally were subjected to searches and extensive questioning by government authorities for evidence of anti-government activities abroad.”
Several sources interviewed by the Danish fact finding mission in 2008 indicated that persons arriving in Iran on a travel document issued by an Iranian embassy, especially those who left Iran illegally, may be questioned on arrival.
In August 2008, in response to a question posed by the Belgian government on the treatment of returned failed asylum seekers to Iran, eight Western countries (Canada, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland) indicated that they had no information “on problems of persecution for returned failed asylum seekers in Iran since 2006”.
Conversely, Western media and NGOs have reported several incidents of mistreatment and detention of returned failed asylum seekers. Some of these reports suggest that returned asylum seekers detained by the Iranian authorities had ‘anti-government’ profiles, such as being a student activist or perceived Arab political activist, or drew attention to their bid for asylum abroad.
According to Dr David Corlett (formerly of La Trobe University) in 2005, the experiences of returnees to Iran varied, with some not being “particularly targeted on arrival”, while others were detained and interrogated. Dr Corlett, who interviewed ten repatriated failed asylum seekers in Iran, also stated that one of the returnees was detained and tortured, but that it was unclear as to why this person was targeted.
On 17 February 2011, in an article published by Iran Newspaper, a retired Iranian Supreme Court judge suggested that returned failed asylum seekers could be prosecuted for creating accounts of alleged persecution in Iran.
On 23 March 2011, Iran Human Rights website, maintained by Iranian human rights activists, reported that a Kurdish failed asylum seeker, Rahim Rostami, was imprisoned after being returned to Iran. The report said that it was not clear what charges were raised against Rostami. According to a Norwegian NGO PeoplePeace, Rostami appeared in a documentary on Norwegian television.
On 6 May 2011, Amnesty International reported that student activist Arash Fakhravan “was reportedly arrested on arrival in Tehran after returning from France where he was an asylum seeker.” Mr. Fakhravan was previously arrested for his participation in December 2009 protests and charged by the Iranian authorities with “insulting the Supreme Leader and taking part in riots and unrest”. “”
from page 40 ff in Australian Country Guidance note from 2011 July by Department of Immigration and Citizenship
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via Iranian Refugees Action Network:
It is very difficult to trace people after they are forced back to Iran. In our experience, over 90% have their European Court appeals granted, but this is only if they have enough money to do so. The most recent case is the one where the 5 Ahvazis were refugees in Iraq, but the Iraq authorities co-operated with the Iranian regime and they are now facing death sentences for their political opposition … [ Iran must immediately revoke the death sentences of prisoners of conscience]
thanks to Irani Sharon and Joanne M.
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useful sources:
The Refugee Law Reader, a comprehensive on-line model curriculum for the study of the complex and rapidly evolving field of international asylum and refugee law issued by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee
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Refworld is the leading source of information necessary for taking quality decisions on refugee status. Refworld contains a vast collection of reports relating to situations in countries of origin, policy documents and positions, and documents relating to international and national legal frameworks. The information has been carefully selected and compiled from UNHCR‘s global network of field offices, Governments, international, regional and non-governmental organizations, academic institutions and judicial bodies.
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to search files on the homepage of the OHCHR
UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights # UN Human Rights
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FORCED-MIGRATION Home Page
FMO is designed for use by students, academics, practitioners, policy makers, the media, forced migrants or anyone else interested in the field of forced migration. By bringing together these useful and time-saving resources, we aim to support research and policy making in the field.
FMO is based in Oxford/UK, runs the Forced Migration Discussion List
Launching the Post-Deportation Monitoring Network
A new initiative has been launched to track what happens to failed asylum seekers after they have been deported. It aims to provide channels of support for deportees when they arrive in their countries of origin and build a body of evidence to inform policy in countries that deport failed asylum seekers. The project will be hosted by Fahamu Refugee Programme and aims to establish a network of NGOs and individuals identified via the website, who will serve as points of contact to link with counterparts in countries of origin.
ulimuc 
23 September 2009
Turkey’s deportation and detention practices condemned by European Court of Human Rights
http://www.irainc.org/pub/PR0909.html
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,ECHR,,IRN,,3ae6b7030,0.html
13 November 2002
1999 – Australia | Iran
UN Human Rights Committee
C. v. Australia, CCPR/C/76/D/900/1999, UN Human Rights Committee (HRC),
http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/%28Symbol%29/f8755fbb0a55e15ac1256c7f002f17bd?Opendocument
decision from May 2003 – applied in 2001
Communication No 190/2001 : Netherlands. 05/26/2003.
CAT/C/30/D/190/2001. (Jurisprudence)
“” … 8. The Committee against Torture, acting under article 22, paragraph 7, of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, considers that the complainant has not substantiated his claim that he would be subjected to torture upon return to Iran and therefore concludes that the complainant’s removal to that country would not constitute a breach by the State party of article 3 of the Convention. ..””
http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/%28Symbol%29/CAT.C.30.D.190.2001.En?OpenDocument
The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada is an independent tribunal established by the Parliament of Canada. Our mission, on behalf of Canadians, is to resolve immigration and refugee cases efficiently, fairly and in accordance with the law.
http://www.irb-cisr.gc.ca/Eng/brdcom/abau/Pages/Index.aspx
A Kurdish asylum seeker extradited from Norway to Iran is in danger of torture and ill-treatment at Tehran’s Evin prison
http://iranhr.net/spip.php?article2015
رحیم رستمی پناهجوی کرد که توسط مقامات نروژ به ایران تحویل داده شده بود در زندان اوین بسر میبرد
http://iranhr.net/spip.php?article2016
just collecting info ..
12 January 2012
“Australian immigration department at a loss with Iranian asylum seekers”
The increase in Iranian asylum seekers arriving on Australian shores has caused concern that thousands could be denied asylum yet unable to return to Iran.
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Figures from the Australian Immigration Department have shown that the majority of Iranian asylum seekers were found not to be refugees on first assessment with 754 of 1,366 applications for asylum being rejected in the three months leading to September 2011.
Iranian asylum seekers now account for almost 50% of the total number of boat arrivals; many are English speaking middle class professionals and as the number of Iranians attempting to reach Australia has grown in the past three years, culminating in 1,549 arriving in 2010-2011, so has the intensity of which the issue is debated in Australian politics.
A spokesman for the Australian Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said the government realised the issue was a “considerable challenge” and a “range of case resolution options” were being considered for failed refugees.
Failed refugees would normally be returned to their native country, involuntarily so if required. However, “the involuntary return of failed asylum-seekers can only occur with the agreement of the host country. And this can only commence after an exhaustive process of assessment and appeal, which can take years,” said Mr Bowen’s spokesman.
“Despite numerous attempts by Australia, the Iranian government has made it clear that it will not accept the involuntary return of failed asylum-seekers.”
Immigration is a much debated topic at the moment in Australia and this announcement has attracted plenty of criticism with Australian Liberal Party MP and former immigration minister Philip Ruddock taking the chance to accuse the current Australian government of failing to negotiate with Iran and reaching an adequate return arrangement for failed refugees.
While in office himself, Mr Ruddock negotiated a deal with Iran which forcibly returned failed asylum seekers to Iran in exchange for granting young Iranians the access to an Australian working holiday visa; a move which attracted its own share of controversy and criticism.
Refugee Council of Australia President John Gibson said the current situation was an “important policy challenge” which the Australian government should continue to try and negotiate a resettlement deal with Iran, highlighting the fact that many of the Iranian asylum seekers had remained in detention centres for over two years.
“People have to be returned in certain circumstances to their country of origin. If they can’t be, the options are indefinite detention, which I don’t think the Australian people support,” Mr Gibson said.
According to Mr Gibson, if a viable long term solution could not be reached, the Australian government may be forced into granting unsuccessful Iranian refugees permanent status.
http://www.visabureau.com/australia/news/12-01-2012/australian-immigration-department-at-a-loss-with-iranian-asylum-seekers.aspx
“Set right in prison when he landed”
Behrooz Kafaei Zendehel deportated from Norway 18 January 2012
http://sarbazanemasih.persianblog.ir/post/35
the same content, published 22 March 2012
http://e-i-s-c.blogspot.de/2012/03/set-right-in-prison-when-he-landed.html
05 December 2012 – the siblings Samira (27) and Hamed (28) were deported from Bodø/Norway to Khamenei airport south of Tehran/Iran ; the Norwegian police confirmed that the siblings had been detained upon arrival – 4 weeks later neither their family in Iran nor their Norwegian friends were able to get in contact with them nor to find out where they are – no sign of life from the siblings is available
14 December 2012 ‘Hun visste at det innebar døden’
http://bodonu.no/hun-visste-at-det-innebar-doden/
05. January 2013 ‘Ingen livstegn fra Samira og Hamed’
http://bodonu.no/ingen-livstegn-fra-samira-og-hamed/
06 January 2013 ‘Fire uker uten livstegn’
http://www.an.no/nyheter/article6428142.ece
08 January 2013 Norwegian Organisation for Asylum seekers NOAS publishes ‘Fire uker uten livstegn’
http://www.noas.no/fire-uker-uten-livstegn/
Reblogged this on Refugee Archives Blog.
A reblogué ceci sur ForumAsile.org and commented:
Ajoutez votre grain de sel personnel… (facultatif)
07 Feb 2012 –
Norway denied asylum – Hadikhanloo now lives in Sydney, with marks of being tortured in Evin .. after being deported from Norway
Fengslet da de kom hjem
Fire menn. De kommer fra ulike land, og har forskjellige historier. En ting har de til felles: Norge betvilte deres beskyttelsesbehov og tvangssendte dem tilbake til landet de kom fra. Der ventet fengsel og rettsforfølgelse.
Danial Hadikhanloo
Hadikhanloo lives in Sydney. He is placed there by the UN that gave him protection after Norwegian authorities refused asylum and returned him to Iran where he was imprisoned and tortured. He’d rather not talk to Eve magazine. He is nedrutt and bitter in Norway. But he allows that the brother in law, Behrouz Ghorbani who are working in the parish church in the center stream, tells his story and gives Aftenbladet access to all documents.
Danial Hadikhanloo’s family has a long history as opponents of the Islamic regime. His father died under torture in 1998 and a brother were killed in a crackdown by the secret police in 1997. He himself was imprisoned several times in the years between 1982 and 1989, under the Khomeini regime. Two sisters have been granted protection in Norway.
– Daniel managed in 2003 to get to Norway where he applied for political asylum. After two off, he was placed on Trandum pending forced return. We got the phone for five o’clock one morning, that my wife and I means come and say goodbye to our brother and brother in law. I tried to mobilize, through contacts in the church, but the next day he was put on a plane to Tehran along with two police officers and handcuffed.
During their stay in Norway converted Muslim Danial Hadikhanloo to Christianity. It would prove to be fatal.
He had a Bible with the luggage. When the airport police did this, he was sent directly to Evin prison outside Tehran. According to the brother in law and other sources Eve magazine has been in contact with, it was never a matter of proselytizing or evangelism.
Evin is a feared torture prison north of Tehran where the strongest regime critics placed. The prison is notorious for torture of political prisoners, first documented in 2004 by the Human Rights Watch report “Like the Dead in Their Coffins”: Torture, Detention, and the Crushing of Dissent in Iran which is published on the website of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees .
( Google translated )
http://www.aftenbladet.no/nyheter/lokalt/Fengslet-da-de-kom-hjem-2925759.html
Iman Amiri, student at Network Security faculty in Malmo-Sweden university, was arrested after his return to Iran on January 21st of 2013.
According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), this student was arrested after returning to Iran by security forces through the detention verdict issued by branch 3 of Evin court and now he is in detention of one of the intelligence sections.
“He had to do televised confession under the physical and mental tortures”, an anonymous sources says.
During the detention time his family was not able to visit him, only his brother could visit him on last Thursday for a couple of minutes and he described Iman’s mental conditions as badly worried.
http://www.en-hrana.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=872%3A1&catid=16%3Amiscellaneous&Itemid=2
Parvaneh Sarabadi – deported from Sweden to Iran on the 22 March 2013
report prior to her deportation:
16 March 2013:
http://www.mohabatnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6503:another-christian-convert-parvaneh-sarabadi-at-risk-of-deportation-to-iran&catid=36:iranian-christians&Itemid=279
10 May 2013 – NORWAY – IRAN
Rahim was deported from Norway in February 2011; his asylum application had been denied, though he came to Norway as a minor. when arriving at Khomeini airport Norwegian police handed him out to the Iranian authorities – he was then detained in Evin in solitary confinement for about 6 weeks, released on bail – managed again to escape from Iran, now is registered as refugee with the UNHCR;
Rahim in an interview via skype told about his 3 months detainement in Evin, about solitary confinement for about 8 weeks, about torture ..
– Norwegian UNE suspects the truth of his report
http://www.nytid.no/nyheter/artikler/20130510/vitner-mot-une/
14 May 2013 – today from Oslo airport to Iran – Fatema Maroufi born in 1977 in Laj near Mahabad in eastern Kurdistan (Kurdistan – Iran) and her son Amin Mazafi born in 1994. They both applied for asylum in Norway on 14.01.2010 – denied in March 2013
from Sweden
February 2012 – not deported so far – no final decision mad – May 2013
Mohammadreza Hamedan Esfahani
CASE NUMBER ; 11-084450/11
DATE OF BIRTH ; 76.09.02
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Bahareh Pourfard
CASE NUMBER ; 11-137315/11
DATE OF BIRTH; 77.10.30
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Asal Hamedian Esfahani
CASE NUMBER ; 11-1373320/11
DATE OF BIRTH ; 2005.05.02
(Janna Valik has not been in charge of Migrationsverket since 2006. The current acting Head is one Christina Werner)
http://www.r-shief.org/facebook/swedish-migrationsverket-will-deport-esfahani-family-back-iran-14-2-2-a-1009242/
June 2014 – Norwegian Organisation for Asylum Seekers
NOAS has published a report about Iranians converted to Christianity -available in Norwegian only-
‘Faith, Hope and Persecution’ – “Tro, håp og forfølgelse”
part 5 in the report: only in Jan+Feb 2014, Norway has deported 30 converts back to Iran, NOAS describes their situation in Iran ..
and demands to change the Norwegian standards
Click to access Tro-haap-og-forfolgelse.-NOAS-rapport-om-kristne-konveritter-fra-Iran_web1.pdf