Letters from Iranian asylum seekers
We, the Iranian asylum seekers in Port Headland, Villawood, and Baxter are writing to tell you that we escaped from the country of Iran for our freedom and our survival. Iran is a country that has been accused of human rights abuses by international organizations more than 49 times since the Islamic Revolution. The country has been ruled by fundamentalist clerics for more than two decades. During these years our freedoms and our basic human rights have been taken away from us, and our people have been silenced. The regime uses any means to take our freedom, search our minds, control our pens and dictate our religion. Those that have spoken up have been put into prison where they have been mentally and physically tortured, humiliated, and even under so-called shar�ia law, been put to death.
We are here because we were lucky to escape from this terribly cruel, violent, and oppressive government. We escaped from a prison nation. We ran for our lives. We would rather die here in Australia than return to the mental and physical torture that awaits us back in Iran.
The Iranian government has made every effort to show itself as a democratic and reformist regime to the world. It has made promises, it has made denials, it has hidden the truth, but the fact is that there is no reform, there is no change, and there is no softening. The situation is getting worse day by day.
The recent death of Zahra Kazemi[1], journalist and photographer highlights the real nature of our rulers and our laws. She was killed for just taking a few photos. During the recent student uprising in Iran, more than 4000 students were arrested and are still in prison, have been subjected to torture, and many have been killed by the government and voluntary Islamic militias.[2] Ahmad Batebi[3] was arrested in 2000 and is still in prison. Despite promises being made to the international community that he would be released, he remains in a terrible physical and mental state after lengthy interrogations and torturing. Farzad Hamidi[4], a student arrested a few months ago, was beaten so badly by the guards that his ribs were broken. Payam Dadkhah[5], a student leader was arrested and put into prison and despite promises that he would be released he was later killed, the authorities claiming he committed suicide. The government labels any dissenting citizens as spies, who are later arrested, imprisoned and often killed.[6] Khaled Toghali[7], a deportee was arrested on his return to Iran and executed.
Even if and when returned asylum seekers, student activists, and political dissidents are released back into the community there is no guarantee of their safety in the future[8].
Cases like these are every day occurrences in Iran. We ask you to look at the reports from Human Rights Watch[9] and you will see that our government condones cutting off body parts, bashing and stoning to death, and executing people in public to enforce their version of the law in the Revolutionary Court. Laws are created every day, there is no legal assistance for the accused and confessions are extracted by torture.
It is not just returned detainees, opposition leaders and religious minorities themselves that are at risk. It is their families and their friends who face torture and imprisonment as well. The web of those facing potentially fatal risks gets bigger every day.
We escaped from Iran because torture, imprisonment and death are a very real threat. We escaped unimaginable brutality from our own leaders. We escaped because we are the victims of our own cruel government. Yet we cannot understand why, despite all the international condemnation of our country and our rulers, the Australian government wants to send us back to such a horrific situation. Everyday in detention we live with the stress and mental anguish driven by the prospect of being sent back. For these reasons we ask the Australian government, the different political parties in the country, and most of all the people of Australia to help us. Help us to live. Help us stop this deportation.
[1] Kazemi was originally from Iran and also a citizen of Canada.
[2] Ahmad Zadeh
[3] Student demonstrator who held up a bloody shirt in the protests of 2000 and had his photo taken in the media and published. And for this he received 15 years prison.
[4] Hamidi was a student in the latest series of protests in 2003.
[5] Dadkhan was arrested during the protests in 2003.
[6] For example Manoochehr Mohammadi, a student protestor arrested in 2000 was charged with spying, and 13 Jewish Iranians were charged with spying for Israel in 1998/9.
[7] Asylum seeker deported from Turkey to Iran.
[8] For example Dadkhah and Toghali.
[9] Human Rights Watch Report, April 2003.
OPEN Letter from all Iranian detainees in Baxter IDC
Media Release
Saturday August 23 2003 12:30am WST
For Immediate Release
No Embargoes
Baxter Detention Centre, 22 August 2003
Dear Prime Minister and all Australian People,
This letter is from all us poor Iranians here at Baxter, which is our prison. I have told this letter to my friend on the telephone because now we have no time. It is Friday night and we are all very frightened because they tell us that tomorrow we will be deported by force to our country.
So tonight we cannot sleep. We pray that something will save us and we try to help each other. We are real human beings and fathers and sons and husbands. We did not leave our country and our family for getting rich or big adventure. We must leave because our government is a dictatorship that tortures and kills its own people like it was in Iraq and we see on television how they open the graves of the poor tortured people. All the governments and the United Nations know that the Iranian government has no respect for human rights.
We ask for help from the government in Australia. We ask that you see that we cannot go back to Iran because we are too afraid of the torture and prison we will have to go to. Many of us have already lost family or have brothers and fathers in prison in Iran. Because we have not always explained our situation in the best way for DIMIA officers to understand, they say that we have failed and are not real refugees and the court cannot help us.
In our country, we tried to have democracy and freedom but we have been put in prison for it. Then we came here because Australia is a democratic country, but they put us in prison, too. How can we show you that we are not bad people?
Sometimes, some of us have been too stressed and sometimes we broke something in detention. We are sorry for that. We are not violent people; only sometimes we cannot endure this prison hell here any more. Now nobody is coming to Australia anymore and your government has fulfilled its wish. But we have suffered for almost 3 years for this policy and we have suffered enough. If it would be possible for us to go home, we would have gone a long time ago even before your government offered us money to go away. But we cannot. If you will not let us stay here, please send us to some other country. A poor country or any country. We will go anywhere but we cannot go back to Iran.
We need your help in this terrible situation. Please help us and stop this deportation of us. We beg you from our heart.
Signed by all the Iranians:
Baxter ID 13, 14, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 18, 20, 21, 24, 42, 43, 54, 63, 96, 55, 236, 237, 238, 132, 91, 123, 152, 168, 170, 269, 236, 369, 290, 291, 292, 154, 354, 370, 225, 131, 288, 362, 210, 345, 217, 214, 372, 220, 348, 230, 368, 322, 198, 224, 276, 349, 333, 334, 332, 201, 202, 213, 199, 167, 151, 172, 175, 205, 93, 166, 321, 343, 218, 197, 215, 94, 287, 388, 230,373, 380, 211, 208, 204, 219, 282, 281, 363, 350, 364, 278, 351, 228, 357, 285, 279.