IV. Their Lives as Refugees

According to statistics compiled by UNHCR from 44 industrialized countries that conduct individual asylum procedures, there were 11,537 new asylum applications from Iranians to these 44 countries in 2009; 15,185 in 2010; and 18,128 in 2011.[138] The largest number of new asylum applications was lodged in neighboring Turkey. Since 2005 several hundred Iranians have lodged asylum applications in areas of northern Iraq administered by the Kurdish Regional Government.[139].

Though there has not been a massive exodus of Iranians since 2009 (the numbers worldwide are below 20,000 per year) there have been noticeable increases in the number both of asylum applications and of civil society activists who have left the country since 2009. In the immediate aftermath of the 2009 June protests and the crackdown that followed, several European Union countries such as Germany, Italy, and France provided visas to civil society activists, journalists, political dissidents, and rights activists outside the UNHCR framework. The majority of the rest of those who fled Iran since 2009 have either chosen to cross the Turkish-Greece border illegally and seek asylum in a European Union country or to file for refugee status and third-country resettlement in Turkey, northern Iraq or elsewhere.

Prospects for third-country resettlement in the United States, Europe, Canada, and Australia, the most popular destinations for refugees and asylum seekers, have dimmed over the past few years largely because many European Union countries have essentially shut their doors to Iranian refugees seeking third-country resettlement. Currently the main countries for resettlement of Iranians are the United States, Canada, Australia, Norway, and Finland, according to UNHCR officials.[140]

Turkey

As of April 30, 2012, Iranians constituted 5,736 out of 26,024 (22 percent) of “people of concern” to UNHCR in Turkey.[141]  In 2009, Iranians lodged 1,981 new applications for refugee status in Turkey. The numbers for 2010 were 2,881, and 3,414 for 2011, a 45 and 72 percent increase since 2009.

Turkey is a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention; however, it maintains a geographical limitation to its accession to the Convention so that it only recognizes as refugees those who originate from Europe. For non-Europeans, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Turkish government conduct parallel refugee status determination (RSD) interviews.

UNHCR regards as refugees those who meet the international refugee definition of having a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, and conducts the refugee status determination for all non-European applicants. Turkey also undertakes an asylum assessment and grants “temporary asylum seekers” to those who meet the asylum seeker definition as per Ministry of Intelligence 1994 Regulation. These persons can, according to the Regulation, remain in Turkey pending their resettlement in a third country

Sometimes Turkey refuses to issue exit permits for those who did not abide to the existing regulation on residency in a designated city until such time that the person regularizes stay. If their application for temporary asylum seeker status is rejected one final instance, Turkey may order their removal back to their country of origin. Despite these limitations, Turkey has received the largest number of Iranian refugees of any other country because in addition to sharing a border with Iran and being a transit route to continental Europe, visas for Iranian passport holders can be obtained at the border.

In October 2011, the Turkish government issued a directive which gives the Alien’s Police the power to reach during 30 days a first decision on an asylum-seeker’s application in seven selected cities.[142] According to the UNHCR office in Ankara, beginning in January 2012 UNHCR officers began noticing cases where Turkish authorities had rejected Iranians and other asylum seekers before UNHCR had the opportunity to make an assessment of their claims. UNHCR Ankara told Human Rights Watch that they have advised all individuals whose applications have been rejected by Turkish authorities to appeal within the necessary timeframe (15 days). The rejection on first instance does not have any effect on the right of the applicant to remain legally in Turkey provided he submits an appeal.

Although the directive empowered authorities to make first-instance decisions, in the majority of cases the Ministry of Interior still waits for UNHCR to make a final decision upon appeal before issuing their own appellate decision (per standard practice before). Despite this, the increase in first refugee status determination (RSD) rejections made by Turkish authorities casts some doubt on the legal status (i.e., right to stay in Turkey) of asylum seekers who are rejected by the Ministry of Interior, and further complicates the somewhat complex relationship between UNHCR and the Turkish government.[143]

During their time in Turkey, refugees and asylum seekers are expected to follow local regulations restricting what they can and cannot do. For example, all are assigned to a “satellite city” where social services may be available to them.[144]They must sign in at the “foreigners” desk of their local police station once or several times a week.[145]

Turkish law requires that all refugees and asylum seekers pay fees for residency, which were  441 Turkish lira (US$241) for adults and TL 288 (US$125) for children in 2010, and have to be renewed (and paid for again)  every six months.[146] They have the right to apply for exemption of residency fees in accordance with article 88 of the Law on Collection of Fees (No. 492). The exemptions were not consistently applied in the past. In March 2010, the Ministry of Interior issued a circular advising local governors to use their authority to waive the fees for asylum seekers and refugees who are unable to pay them, but there is still confusion among refugees about their eligibility and the procedure for the exemption.[147] Those who have applied told Human Rights Watch that it is nearly impossible for them to get the exemption. Most do not have the means to pay the residency fees.[148] Without residency permits it is extremely difficult to gain access to health care, education, social assistance, and employment. In general, refugees and asylum seekers are responsible for their own expenses, including housing.

Turkish law also requires refugees and asylum seekers with six-month residency permits to secure work permits prior to gaining employment, but only allows these to be issued if no Turkish national is qualified to perform the job. These administrative burdens, along with the high cost of residency fees, mean that most refugees cannot secure work permits and therefore work illegally in order to survive, making many vulnerable to exploitation by their Turkish employers. [149]

In addition to the administrative and regulatory barriers that provide challenges to refugees and asylum seekers in Turkey, the biggest complaint registered by Iranian refugees and asylum seekers is the significant wait times associated with RSDs and resettlement.[150] UNHCR officials told Human Rights Watch that in the past year wait times for processing of RSDs have significantly increased. According to officials in 2010-11 UNHCR Turkey was, on average, able to conduct RSDs within two to three months of registration and provide a decision within eight months. In 2011-12, however, the average wait time for an initial interview has increased to 12-13 months. The sharp increase in delay times is attributable to a 75 percent overall increase in all applications lodged with UNHCR Turkey in the past year.[151]

Iraq (Iraqi Kurdistan)

Iraq is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and UNHCR is the primary party responsible for processing and managing asylum claims in Iraq and areas in Iraqi Kurdistan[152] managed by the Kurdish Regional Government.[153] The majority of Iranian refugees who have registered with UNHCR’s offices in Iraq have done so in Iraqi Kurdistan, under the authority of the KRG. As of October 2012, there were approximately 9,636 “people of concern” in Iraqi Kurdistan, according to UNHCR.[154] Most of these refugees and asylum seekers are ethnic Kurds, many of whom were recognized as prima facie refugees and have been in Iraq since the 1980s.

An official in the UNHCR office in Erbil told Human Rights Watch that the office prioritized for resettlement to third countries those Iranians who were in danger or had other security issues. She said that resettlement countries, especially in Europe, showed little interest in admitting Iranian Kurds. She cited several reasons for their attitudes, including a concern regarding integration into European communities, a belief that at least some Iranian Kurds had been in Iraqi Kurdistan for years and were well-integrated there, and a general belief that areas controlled by the KRG were safe and that asylum seekers have decent access to basic services.[155] This is especially true for the thousands of Iranian Kurds who have lived as refugees in Iraq since the 1980s and who have neither been resettled in third countries nor gained full legal status as naturalized Iraqi citizens.[156]

The difficulties cited above relate to a general perception by many Iranian Kurdish refugees and asylum seekers that UNHCR is inactive or passive when it comes to resettlement of refugees abroad. One Iranian Kurdish refugee voiced a common complaint when he told Human Rights Watch that he believed UNHCR “feels no sense of responsibility [in Iraqi Kurdistan] because they believe the area is secure and there are opportunities for refugees who come here.” [157]  He said many Iranian refugees who come to Iraqi Kurdistan have chosen to move clandestinely to Europe instead of waiting for UNHCR to accept them as refugees and resettle them because “very few” cases had been accepted for resettlement. [158]

Thirty-six Iranian refugees have been resettled from Iraq in the last five years, according to UNHCR’s own figures. UNHCR Iraq informed Human Rights Watch that in the recent past it lacked capacity to process RSDs in a timely manner, and said wait times varied between six months to one year. More recently, however, UNHCR Iraq has increased its RSD capacity and wait times have been reduced to one to three months for newly registered asylum seekers.[159] UNHCR’s statistics indicate that around 500 asylum seekers have registered with UNHCR in Iraqi Kurdistan since 2007, and that as of October 2012 the office receives an average of nine to ten Iranian asylum seekers per week.[160]

UNHCR officials generally have a positive view regarding their working relationship with the KRG, and the government’s treatment of Iranian refugees and asylum seekers. A UNHCR official told Human Rights Watch that they were not aware of any deportations or threats made against Iranian asylum seekers or refugees in KRG, but could not state definitively that this was always the case. [161] Another UNHCR official informed Human Rights Watch that on occasion Iranian asylum seekers have been threatened with deportations if they were found to have “security concerns,” but that UNHCR had intervened in such cases and no one had, in the past five years, been deported to Iran for this reason. [162]

A KRG official echoed UNHCR’s sentiments. [163] But several asylum seekers who spoke to Human Rights Watch alleged they had been warned by KRG security and intelligence officers to refrain from openly criticizing the Iranian government or cease their activities altogether.  

An Iranian asylum-seeker who wished to remain anonymous told Human Rights Watch that authorities at the KRG residency office and the Asayish repeatedly warned him to refrain from human rights activities that criticized the Iranian government.[164] He said authorities monitored him and interrogated him about his activities on several occasions. One officer, he said, made it clear that even if an Iranian refugee’s safety is at issue the KRG “will not sacrifice its relations with the Iranians.”[165] Another recounted similar threats by KRG officials because of his human rights activities.[166]

Most asylum seekers interviewed by Human Rights Watch who complained about threats from KRG authorities to cease their human rights or political activities said they also encountered problems with their residency status or freedom of movement in Iraqi Kurdistan. According to the UNHCR official in Erbil, when refugees first enter Iraqi Kurdistan they are required to register with UNHCR and get a letter from UNHCR attesting to their having lodged a claim. They then must present that letter to the local police to obtain a 10-day residency permit. They then need to go to the KRG Directorate of Residency for an interview, and if they receive security clearance they get a residency permit that they need to renew every six months. If there are problems with the security clearance they receive a permit which needs to be renewed every month. The official told Human Rights Watch that a UNHCR registration card should, in general, qualify the refugee for a six month residency card provided he or she gets KRG security clearance.[167]

Human Rights Watch spoke with several Iranian refugees who said they had run into residency problems with the KRG’s security forces and with officials at the Residency Directorate. The vast majority of Iranian refugees Human Rights Watch interviewed in Iraqi Kurdistan said that KRG authorities encourage Iranian asylum seekers to get letters of support from exile Iranian opposition groups operating in Iraqi Kurdistan, or from Iraqi Kurdish political parties such as Jalal Talebani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan or Masoud Barzani’s Kurdish Democratic Party.[168]  Many civil society activists were uncomfortable doing this because they did not want to be affiliated with any political parties.

Another Iranian Kurdish refugee, said there was lots of pressure from KRG officials to get support from political groups in order to live and continue his political activities:

We are tortured [in Iran] to prove our membership [with opposition groups], but here we have to become members in order to stay. They push us into this. This endangers [the work of] human rights activists.[169]

Several Iranian asylum seekers in Iraqi Kurdistan told Human Rights Watch that it is difficult to acquire a temporary resident permit from KRG authorities if they refuse to receive sponsorship from these groups.[170] In the absence of such sponsorship authorities will sometimes only grant temporary work permits even to those who have registered as asylum seekers with UNHCR. The temporary work permits are usually good for six months and must be renewed thereafter. An asylum seeker who refused sponsorship from KRG groups told Human Rights Watch that when he went to renew his work permit with the KRG authorities in May 2012 they told him he is essentially a migrant worker in Iraqi Kurdistan and should not engage in political activity.[171]

UNHCR staff said they were aware of these additional requirements placed on Iranian refugees by KRG authorities, especially for non-Kurdish Iranian s, and that they were willing to intervene on behalf of Iranians who could not or did not want to get letters of support from Iranian opposition parties to ensure they have no problems with their residency status.[172] But such intervention has not always worked. One Iranian refugee told Human Rights Watch that when he was told by KRG officials to get a letter of support from an Iranian opposition group he went to UNHCR:

UNHCR sent a lawyer with me to the residency office. At first it was OK but then after a while I started having problems because they wanted me to get a letter of support when I was in Sulaimaniya. In fact the Asayish said I must get residency in Sulaimaniya and that the letter I’d received in Erbil does not count. I have not been able to get residency even though I’ve gone more than 20 times now.[173]

Another Iranian refugee told Human Rights Watch that, because of his participation in several demonstrations against both KRG authorities and the Iranian government, authorities have refused to renew his residency permit. He also said authorities had summoned him in for questioning several times and informed him that he is deportable despite the fact that he is a registered asylum-seeker with UNHCR.[174]

Iranian refugees in Iraqi Kurdistan also complained about a sense of insecurity during their time in Iraq due to harassment or intimidation by Iranian security and intelligence officials against their families back in Iran. One Iranian refugee who currently lives in Erbil told Human Rights Watch that Iranian security officials harassed his sister and family members after they found out he had left the country and sought refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan. He said that until a few months ago, one of his interrogators in Iran, a man he knew as “Ghaffari,” would send him text messages and e-mails claiming he knew where he lived. Ghaffari often relayed messages through his relatives back in Iran suggesting that Iranian security forces could kidnap him and take him back to Iran easily.[175] Another refugee told Human Rights Watch in November 2011 that during the past year he has received several calls on his mobile phone from individuals who have threatened him.[176]

Another refugee told Human Rights Watch that although his situation in Iraqi Kurdistan is difficult he continues documenting and reporting rights violations in Iran. After his July 22, 2011 interview with the British newspaper TheGuardian, in which Rahmani commented on the large number of individuals awaiting execution in  Dizel Abad prison in Kermanshah, Iranian authorities threatened his family in Iran in order to pressure him to stop speaking about rights abuses taking place in the country, he told Human Rights Watch.[177]

Many refugees expressed the fear that Iranian security and intelligence forces were able to operate freely in Iraqi Kurdistan. Several told Human Rights Watch that Iran maintains intelligence-gathering outposts, kargah-e ramezan, in several cities and towns in Iraqi Kurdistan.[178] These offices, they said, have been used for different purposes in the past, including issuing permits to visit Iran and gathering intelligence on Iraqi Kurdish parties as well as Iranian opposition figures.  Human Rights Watch has not been able to independently verify that Iranian agents threaten or target Iranian refugees or asylum seekers in Iraqi Kurdistan.