March 19, 2001
On Monday, March 12, several Iranian refugee claimants, including political opponents, student activists and religious converts began a hunger strike in Pakistan to demand that the UNHCR grant them refugee recognition and resettlement to a safe third country. The hunger strikers are Vahid Younessi (case number I-17447), Eskandar Farzad (I-17337), Farshid Jalali (I-16778), Khalil Ibrahimi (I-16776), Aeidi Safari (I-17435), Fereidoun Ghorbanian (I-17281), Mohammad Farajzadeh (I-17481), and Hassan Parsa (I-17684).
IFIR calls on groups and
individuals to send letters of protest to the UNHCR in Pakistan asking that
their casefiles be reviewed and that Iranians be granted protection from
deportation back to Iran.
Send your protest letters to:
E-mail: pakis@unhcr.ch
Fax: 0092-5127-9455