After 9 months of homelessness at Moscow Airport and following IFIR’s successful global campaign;

Zahra Kamalfar has been saved from Moscow Airport!

Zahra and her children will fly to Canada on Wednesday 14 March!

According to the latest news, a few minutes ago Mrs Kamalfar informed the IFIR’s Secretariat that the Canadian Embassy has accepted her and her children’s application for asylum and resettlement in Canada and that they will be flying to Canada on Wednesday 14 March 2007.

After 9 months of homelessness in the Transit Hall of Moscow Airport, and thanks to the global campaign lead by the International Federation of Iranian Refugees (IFIR) supported by thousands around the world, Mrs Kamalfar at long last has been saved from a menacing nightmare of bewilderment and frustration.

Since the early days of Mrs Kamalfar’s arrival at Moscow Airport, the IFIR launched a campaign with the aim of preventing her deportation and to have her rights recognised as an asylum seeker. This was amongst many other campaigns organised by the IFIR which was well received by the international communities including tens of news media agencies and television networks who reflected upon Mrs Kamalfar’s dire and tragic situation at Moscow Airport.

In doing so, the IFIR was virtually transformed into an international network of tens of institutions and organisations as well as hundreds of individuals in distant corners of the globe forming a chain of joint effort in order to succeed in this campaign.

During the first phase of our campaign we managed to persuade the UNHCR to recognise Mrs Kamalfar’s right to asylum and prevented her deportation back to Iran. The second phase of IFIR’s campaign was launched on 19 February 2007 to achieve Mrs Kamalfar and her children’s resettlement in Canada. Tens of reports and correspondences were forwarded to hundreds of different organisations around the world. The Canadian Immigration and the Foreign Office as well as the Human Rights Commissionaire of Ottawa Parliament were targeted and put under immense pressure with our demand for immediate resettlement of Mrs Kamalfar in Canada.

Eventually, all our efforts paid off which means that not only Mrs Kamalfar herself, but also millions of people around the world who followed her dreadful story at Moscow Airport and viewed her on their television screens are jubilant with the remarkable outcome of this campaign.

Saving Mrs Kamalfar and her children from Moscow Airport wasn’t a trivial task.

This was a landmark victory within the asylum seekers’ movement, a valuable achievement in defending humanity and a distinctive effort in the records of the IFIR.

Hambastegi, IFIR would like to extend its congratulations to Zahra Kamalfar and her children Davood and Anna, and Zahra Kamalfar’s family, particularly to Nader in Canada and all those organisations and individuals who supported this campaign by offering their practical participation in order to save Zahra Kamalfar, for this lustrous achievement and wish the Kamalfars all the best in Canada.

We also once again and hereby call upon all other refugees to join the ranks of IFIR in order to effectively defend their unequivocal rights as asylum seekers.

Hambastegi, International Federation of Iranian Refugees

12 March 2007