Bewildered and lonesome at Moscow Airport

"My children have not seen the sun for 18 months here at Moscow Airport"

Reporting 18 months of destitute and perplexity of an asylum seeker lady and her 2 children at Moscow Airport

Farshad Hosseini

Zahra Kamalfar is an Iranian asylum seeker along with her daughter Anna, 17 and her son Davood, 12 who have been bewildered aimlessly at Moscow airport for the past 18 months.

I first heard about this via Fahime Sadeghi, The Secretary of the Federation in Vancouver. We then contacted Zahra’s brother and her lawyer in Canada. I spoke to Zahra on the phone and asked her about her life after she fled Iran.

What you are about to read is based upon my telephone conversation with Zahra at the Transit Hall of Moscow Airport.

Zahra (Mahtab) Kamalfar, speaking in a very sad and miserable tone of voice, described her ordeal to me as follows:

It is now exactly 18 months since we left Iran. Our journey started at Gherghizestan and we then flew to Frankfurt via Moscow. We were supposed to fly to Canada once we reached Frankfurt but we were arrested at Frankfurt Airport, holding 3 boarding cards and Bulgarian Passports in our hands. We were then presented with the option of applying for asylum.

I contacted a friend of mine in Frankfurt and asked for guidance. I was reminded that Frankfurt was not our final destination and was hence advised to refrain from telling the whole truth about what had become of us in Iran. I was not fully aware of the situation and was also extremely worried about being deported back to Iran.

I was interviewed after a couple of days and as advised by my friend, I tried to be economical with the whole truth and delivered a fictitious scenario.

We spent 15-16 days in Frankfurt before the German authorities asked us to gather our belongings. At first we thought that they were taking us to a different place. On the journey in the car we realised that they were taking us back to the airport. We were then put on a plane and we were told that we were being sent back to Moscow Airport Transit Hall.

We arrived in Moscow at about midnight. The first thing we did was to call at the Aeroflot Airlines office and apply for asylum. One of their officers informed us that Russia did not grant asylum to anybody and that we would be detained in jail. I prefer Russian jails to Islamic Republic’s jails, I replied.

I persevered with this and I was told that our case would be dealt with the following day.

We spent the whole night at the airport. The following day they took us to an old hotel which was meant to be a deportation centre for asylum seekers. They told us to contact the Iranian Consulate to arrange our return back to Iran. Some time later someone called Ahmadi or Ohadi contacted me from the Iranian Consulate assuring me that we would not have any problems and that we could return back to Iran. Thank you very much for your advice, I don’t need your help, I replied and put the phone down on him. A little while later a lady in charge of the Aeroflot Information Desk by the name of “Maria Andrin” tried to persuade me to go back to Iran and kept assuring me that we would face no problems in Iran. She kept insisting on me to contact the Iranian Consulate to arrange our return back to Iran. I told her that I was in trouble and I needed help.

I tried to explain my problem and the reasons why I couldn’t go back to Iran but they were not interested. I demanded to refer my case to the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees and eventually they agreed to fax my letter to this organisation.

A month later, I had a visit by a representative of the UN Commissioner for Refugees who was accompanied by an Afghani interpreter who was not fully conversant with Farsi and in most cases would not understand me fully. During this visit we were also accompanied by “Maria Andrin” and two other police personnel.

Following this interview, “Maria” began her psychological and physical abuse on me. She found all sorts of ways of putting me under pressure to the point that we were even beaten up by her on many occasions. We really had a hard time full of commotion and uncertainty.

My health was deteriorating and requested medical assistance but during all this time I have only been seen once by a doctor and had medication prescribed a couple of times.

The UN Commissionaire advised us to formally apply for asylum from the Russian authorities before they could consider our case.

We applied for asylum form the Russian authorities but they rejected our application. Their reason for refusal was that they would only consider such applications within 24 hours of the applicants’ arrival into Russia and as we had exceeded this period before filing our case, we would not be considered as eligible.

I dismissed this allegation and explained in a letter to the authorities that I had applied for asylum on my arrival in the first place but I had been ignored on this matter.  

For the second time, the Russian Immigration Authorities rejected my points of dispute. The UN Commissionaire informed me that they had appointed a lawyer for us and that our case would be referred to the court. But the court was adjourned with the same verdict.

Following this, the UN Commissionaire decided to take up the case himself and after a while I had the same negative verdict from this organisation. The reasons given for the negative verdict were the contradictions in my statements given to the German authorities.

Meanwhile, during all this commotion we have been having a very dull, unfair and inhumane life at the Moscow Airport Transit Hall.

To begin with, we spent 13 months in one of the 11old and outdated rooms of the Aeroflot Airlines at the Transit Hall. There were no facilities there. No radio or TV, not even sanitary facilities. These rooms resembled prison cells. About 5 months ago, Aeroflot’s contract with the Airport expired and they completely washed their hand off us and we were left to our own devises.

We have been living in the Airport’s main hall for the last 5 months. Once “Maria” assaulted my daughter so badly that she bled from her mouth. We are also tormented by the Airport police every now and then. We were once warned by the Airport police to gather all our belongings and move to a different spot. While we were busy doing this, the police scattered all our belongings across the airport floor. When I complained to them about their behaviour, they pushed me so hard that I landed on my head injuring my nose and face.

We have no room to sleep in the Main Hall and there are no baths or shower facilities. Normally we bath ourselves using a pan in the toilets.

There is no air-conditioning here and it’s a very outdated airport.

It’s beginning to get cold here and the famous Russian winter is setting in and I’m extremely worried………..

Zahra paused for a little while before she burst into tears and carried on with a sobbing voice:

Help us. This is a horrific place, she said. This is a place to pass through not to live in. My children haven’t seen the sun for 18 months. Does anybody hear me? This is Moscow. Human rights don’t mean anything over here.

Do whatever you can and save me and my children. Don’t let my children perish in here.