نامه دبیر فدراسیون سراسری پناهندگان

To: UNHCR in Turkey
CC: Human Rights Organizations and Institutions
We, in International Federation of Iranian Refugees (IFIR), are in receipt of reports and photographs from Van, Turkey, according to which two refugee applicants by the names of Kamran Abdollahzade and Reza Mashayekhi, well known political activists, have gone on dry hunger strike in that city. According to the said reports, the Turkish police has arrested the two refugee applicants for a short period of time and warned them that if they continued their hunger strike and appealed to the country’s media, they would be detained and, most probably, deported. Following their release the refugee applicants reportedly went back to UNHCR location and took up their strike. The placard by their side reads, “No to bread, no to water, until receiving reply!”

Kamran Abdollahzade and Reza Mashayekhi spent the nights of Monday and Tuesday of last week in cold, rainy weather. Exactly 40 hours have passed since they began their hunger strike, but they have not received any reply or even attention from UNHCR.
We believe it is only fair to ask UNHCR official in Van, Did you not consider it your responsibility to attend to the plights of these refugee applicants? Is it not the responsibility of UNHCR in Turkey as well as other countries to attend to the affairs of the people whose human rights have been violated in Iran and other countries? Have the said two refugee applicants not come to UNHCR in desperation to seek help in order to defend their human rights?
The reports of the action taken by these two refugee applicants as a last resort have been widely reflected on news web site together with the deeply sad scenes of their hunger strike that bring tears to the eyes of any fair viewer. Yet UNHCR officials have completely ignored them. UNHCR is presented everywhere as a humanitarian institution, but facts tell a different story. It has been 26 months since these two refugees have referred to UNHCR as applicants but have neither received a reply nor any financial aid. Kamran Abdollahzade and Reza Mashayekhi are protesting this grave negligence on the part of the UNHCR.
We are deeply apprehensive about Kamran Abdollahzade and Reza Mashayekhi’s health as well as their security, and therefore request UNHCR to review their cases and grant them refugee status as soon as possible.
We hereby also urge these two dear friends to break their hunger strike and stop further hurting themselves. They have already been hurt enough physically and emotionally during the past 26 months. We urge them to break their hunger strike and continue their struggle in different ways. They should rest assured that IFIR will support them in every possible way, and make sure that their voice is heard across the world.


Abdollah Asadi
Secretary,
International Federation of Iranian Refugees

11 March 2009