UNHCR Violates Refugee Rights

February 19, 2001

Lilofer Tahir Qadir (case number T-1290), an Iraqi woman asylum seeker in Turkey who requested living assistance from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was referred to an organisation in Istanbul since the UN does not provide any assistance to refugees awaiting a refugee status determination. While in Istanbul, Lilofer’s six-year old daughter, Aisha Khalid Yussif Ameer, was raped. Despite a medical report and Lilofer’s request for intervention, the UNHCR has taken no action.

In another indignity, on January 25, when Diyar Mustafa Kareem, case number M-59211, stabbed herself in the chest in front of the UNHCR office upon receiving information that her casefile has been closed, the UNHCR had her and her two children arrested. Diyar feared being refouled to Iraqi Kurdistan.

IFIR calls on groups and individuals to send letters of protest to the UNHCR in Turkey demanding their provision of adequate living assistance to refugee claimants, including to Lilofer Tahir Qadir; providing legal and medical support to Aisha Khalid Yussif; and granting Lilofer and Diyar Mustafa Kareem and other women fleeing sex-based persecution in Islamist societies protection. Protest letters can be sent to: UNHCR, Fax: 0090-312-438-2702, E-mails: khanhu@unhcr.ch, turan@unhcr.ch.