Updates

26 February 2003

* Several Iranian asylum seekers in Turkey and Greece have recently committed suicide, namely Hadi Shahbazi, Mohammad Hussein Tamana, Kamran Farmandeh, Javad Azimi and Shahram Zarkani because of their closed case files by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and their threat of being deported back to Iran where they feared persecution. IFIR once again holds the UNHCR responsible for these deaths. It continues to call on asylum seekers not to commit suicide or harm themselves in any way but to resist UNHCR and anti-asylum policies via positive and organised means.

* Farhad Alipour has been on hunger strike since 31 January in a detention centre in Malmo, Sweden in opposition to his deportation to Iran by the Swedish government. He can hardly speak and is in critical condition. The Swedish authorities have banned him from communicating with the IFIR and his brother in Denmark. IFIR has demanded that the Swedish authorities release him immediately and grant his protection.