۲۸ December 2010

 

To UNHCR

Turkey

 

RE:   Mohammad Ashrafi

 

Mr Mohammad Ashrafi is a well-known trade unionist and a member of the Follow-up Committee to Form Free Labour Organisations in Iran. For over three months, Mr Ashrafi and a number of other asylum-seekers had been held by Greek police on the Greek-Turkish border. During that time, the International Federation of Iranian Refugees (IFIR), after extensive research and constant contact with Greek Interior Ministry, found out that Mohammad Ashrafi was being held in a Greek detention centre on the Turkish border, along with four other asylum seekers.

 

Two weeks ago Turkey’s Interior Ministry, in a meeting with the representatives of IFIR, stated that Mohammad Ashrafi and the other asylum seekers would be released only if, in accordance with Turkish regulations, they applied for asylum in Greece. Nevertheless, Greek police on 20^th December returned Mr Ashrafi and the other asylum seekers to Turkey, upon which Turkish police deported them to Iraqi Kurdistan. However, the border guards in Iraqi Kurdistan realised that Mohammad Ashrafi did not speak Kurdish and so returned him to Turkey. Mr Ashrafi is now in detention in Ardana detention centre, near Istanbul, and in danger of being deported to Iran.

 

On the afternoon of 27^th December, Turkish police handed Mr Ashrafi an asylum application form for submission to UNHCR. However, the danger of his deportation to Iran has not been eliminated.

 

In a previous correspondence to the Greek Government, on 5^th December, IFIR informed the Greek authorities that on 21 June 2010, the Third Branch of Tehran’s Islamic Revolution Court had via telephone summoned Mohammad Ashrafi to appear before that Branch the following day. Having learnt of the judicial authorities’ trumped up charges and threats against himself, Mr Ashrafi decided to leave Iran.

 

IFIR requests the UNHCR in Turkey to arrange a meeting with Mohammad Ashrafi as soon as possible, and place him under UN protection.

 

Yours faithfully

 

 

Abdollah Asadi

Secretary,

International Federation of Iranian Refugees