Danger of Deportation of Refugees from Turkey to Iran, Especially Political Refugees

Iranian refugees residing in Turkey, particularly political refugees, are at risk of deportation to Iran.

Turkey is one of the countries that accepts refugees and is geographically close to Iran. Many Iranian political and ideological activists have traveled to this country and applied for asylum due to the precarious living conditions under the Islamic Republic’s government. In the past, many political and ideological individuals were transferred to third countries by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. However, in recent years, due to changes in the refugee laws of the aforementioned country, refugees whose asylum was previously registered under the supervision of the United Nations were transferred to the country’s immigration office. Following this, numerous problems have arisen for Iranian refugees living in Turkey.

Since late 2018, Turkey’s immigration office has also cut off insurance coverage for Iranian refugees and rejected the cases of many of them, even those who had received UN approval. As a result, refugees have been left in a state of limbo and their cases have remained unresolved in Turkish courts. Now many refugees are living in camps and are at serious risk of deportation.

In this regard, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network also reported that at least 20 Iranian and Afghan political refugees have been transferred to an unknown location by order of the authorities of the camp in the city of Edirne, Turkey, for the purpose of deportation to Iran.

Amir Kahrizi is a political activist from Kermanshah and a member of the Kurdistan Komala Party of Iran who was arrested by police in Greece on the 17th of Ordibehesht while en route to Europe as a refugee, and was subsequently handed over to Turkey. Since his handover to Turkey, he has been living in limbo along with a number of other Iranian refugees in the camp in the city of Edirne.

The deportation of many ideological and political refugees to Iran has raised widespread concerns among the refugee community. Turkey’s deportation of Iranian refugees is occurring at a time when Iran is in a very dangerous situation. Even Germany suspended the expulsion of Iranian refugees following recent protests in Iran and the severe crackdown on protesters by government forces.

Human rights activists have also expressed concern about the return of ideological and political refugees, as well as members of the LGBT community, and stated that the deportation of these individuals would pose a threat to their lives.