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UK: Iranian Kurdish Asylum seekers fear
death if the Home Office send them back to Iran
26.7.2007
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July
26, 2007
UK, -- A Family of asylum seekers fear they will be
tortured and killed if the Home Office goes through
with its plan to send them back to Iran.
Sedigheh Ahmadi, aged 43, and her sons Ramin and
Nima, aged 19 and 17 respectively, had travelled to
the UK in October, after her husband Sirus died
here.
He had fled his native country after catching the
attention of the Iranian secret police, because he
opposed the hard-line Islamic regime as a member of
the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran. He had been
beaten and tortured.
Sirus died of cancer while in the UK in early 2006,
and his family set up home in the Potteries after
his death.
They have now been refused Home Office permission to
remain living in Buccleuch Road, Normacot.
They are desperately hoping for a reprieve after
relatives in Iran warned them their home has been
raided, and say if they return home they are likely
to be murdered.
Ramin said: "If we go back to Iran we will be
tortured and killed. My uncle has told us the
authorities invaded our home after we left. He says
if we come back we will be killed. When my father
was dying we flew to Bulgaria, and asked the British
Embassy for permission to come to visit him in
hospital, but we were refused.
"When we got back to Iran we were arrested. I was
handcuffed and blindfolded and thrown into the back
of a car.
"I was taken to a room which could have been a
courtroom, and then I was put in prison."
He says he was regularly beaten during a month-long
spell in prison, and that while most prisoners were
allowed out into the fresh air between 8am and 7pm,
he was confined to his cell and allowed only three
30-minute sessions outside a day.
He says he was threatened each night by fellow
prisoners who all had knives.
He added: "They would put their knives on my neck
and tell me 'you will not see tomorrow'.
"It was very frightening. They would set up a
supposed fight between themselves, but instead of
hitting one another would attack me."
Ramin was freed, and soon after, the three fled to
the UK after being persecuted for Sirus's political
views.
The Home Office has refused their application for
asylum. It believes the family will be safe now that
Sirus has died.
A judge told them at their immigration hearing: "The
fact is the Iranian authorities only ever appeared
interested in the appellant's father.
"I hold that there is no reason why the authorities
would wish to single this family out on their
return."
A Home Office spokesman added: "We do not comment on
individual cases.
"If an application is refused, there is a right of
appeal to the independent appellate authorities
against that decision.
"We only return those who the asylum decision-making
and independent appeals processes have found do not
need international protection, and who can therefore
return safely."
The family, who were placed in Normacot by the Home
Office, are due to meet with officials next week to
discuss their case.
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Iranian Kurdistan
**
Iranian Kurdistan (Kurdish: Kurdistana Īranź or
Kurdistana Rojhilat (Eastern Kurdistan) or Rojhilatź
Kurdistan (East of Kurdistan)) is an unofficial name
for the parts of Iran inhabited by Kurds and has
borders with Iraq and Turkey. It includes the
greater parts of West Azerbaijan province, Kurdistan
Province, Kermanshah Province, and Ilam Province.
Kurds form the majority of the population of this
region with an estimated population of 4 million.
The region is the eastern part of the greater
cultural-geographical area called Kurdistan.
More about Iranian Kurdistan
The present leader of the organisation is Haji
Ahmadi. According to the Washington Times, half the
members of PEJAK are women, many of them still in
their teens, and one of the female members of the
leadership council is Gulistan Dugan, a psychology
graduate from the University of Tehran. This is due
primarily to the fact that PJAK is strongly
supportive of women's rights. PJAK believes that
women must have a strong role in government and must
be on an equal level with men in leadership
positions.
More about PEJAK- Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan
KDPI
The Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran in Kurdish
(Hīzbī Dźmokiratī Kurdistanī Źran) is a Kurdish
opposition group in Iranian Kurdistan which seeks
the attainment of Kurdish national rights within a
democratic federal republic of Iran.
The current
General Secretary of the Democratic Party of Iranian
Kurdistan is Mustafa Hijri
More about KDPI- Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran
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