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﻿<title﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, Iran Is Not a Safe Country - Article﻿</title>﻿
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﻿<b﻿>﻿Iran Is Not a Safe Country 
﻿<br﻿>﻿</b>﻿</font>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

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by Hassan Varash﻿<br﻿>﻿
﻿<i﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, August - September 1998﻿</i>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿
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In December 1997, the Canadian Federal government announced that it would deport over 16,000 people to the countries from which they had fled. 
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Since December, the deportations have been increasing. Among deportees are the asylum-seekers who fled Iran to save their lives. Every week over ten are deported to Iran, where they will face persecution: rape, torture, imprisonment, execution, and stoning. The tightening refugee policies of the government are so unbearable that refugee claimants prefer to commit suicide.
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On July 23, 1998, an Iranian refugee claimant, Nasrollah Goodarzi, committed suicide in Vancouver. He came to Canada with the hope of being accepted as a refugee and of reunifying his family here. The Immigration Department left him in limbo; the case was pending for over a year. Twice before he had unsuccessfully attempted suicide to protest Canada's refugee policies. Tragically, the third time he succeeded.
﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿
Rather than change its policies after this tragic event, the federal government decided to intensify its crackdown on refugees. On July 29, despite a demonstration by the "Campaign in Defense of Refugees and Immigrants," an Iranian family of four were deported to Iran. They had come to Canada in 1994 and requested asylum, a request which was denied. They had two children (a two year daughter and a four year son) who were born in Canada and, thus, were Canadian citizens. The immigration officer who deported them handed over to Iranian officials all their documents, which means that now the Islamic regime knows precisely what they have said against it at the Refugee Board in Canada. After arriving at Iranian airport, the family was severely harassed: their money was confiscated and their suitcase was torn into pieces by a knife. They were "released", but knowing the past history of the Islamic regime, they will be picked up after the protest abroad to support them has settled down.
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Why is the federal government deporting refugees who are seeking asylum in this country? Deportations of Iranian refugees are conducted under the pretext that Iran is a safe country. There is a political campaign by the Western states and their puppet media, such as CNN, BBC, and CBC, to claim that Iran has changed, that its new president, Khatami is a moderate clergy who talks about "civil society" and "the rule of law", and that he is pushing Iran towards democracy. In this context, Canadian Immigration authorities feel confident about deporting Iranian refugee claimants and sending them to death squads. 
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As a result of the tireless and continuous activities of the "Campaign", one NDP MP decided to pressure the House of Commons to open the discussion about whether Iran is a safe country on September 21, 1998. This provides an opportunity for us to force the government and the House of Commons to hear our side of story. It is time to speak up and declare that insofar as the people of Iran and the opponents of the Islamic Republic of Iran are concerned, Iran is not a safe country at all. It is a country where women are stoned to death because of sexual intercourse, Bahais are executed because of their religion, a country in which there are no freedom of expression, association, and unionization, and all political parties are forced underground. That is why Iranian people are fleeing in the thousands. For the first time in Iranian history, millions have left whatever and whoever they had behind and sought asylum in the West.
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It is high time for concerned individuals, groups, and organizations to take part in the planned day of action on September 21. The least they can do is to write a letter to the federal government and the House of Commons to demand that 1) Iran should be declared an unsafe country so that no asylum seeker would be deported; and 2) the representatives of the International Federation of Iranian Refugees in Canada should be allowed to be present during the discussion and decision making process at the House. 
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﻿<font﻿ ﻿size="1"﻿>﻿Hassan Varash is President of the International Federation of Iranian Refugees in Canada.﻿</font>﻿</font>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

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