DUSHABE, August 1, Asia-Plus — Two Iranian prisoners, Mir-Mehdi Mousavi and Asad Haidari, serving their sentences in a penal colony in Tajikistan, should not be deported to the Islamic Republic of Iran; they should be granted political asylum, Mr. Patyam Furughi, Human Rights Officer at the OSCE Center in Dushanbe, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
He said that those two Iranian nationals crossed the Afghan-Tajik border in 2006, seeking political asylum in Tajikistan. “However, Tajik border guards that time did not look into the situation properly and arrested them,” the human rights officer said.
According to Mr. Furughi, the prisoners did not applied to the OSCE Center in Dushanbe. “However, as far as I know, they applied to the President of Tajikistan, Ministry of Justice, State Committee for National Security and the UNHCR Country Office in Tajikistan,” said the expert from the OSCE Center, “In accordance with international laws, foreign prisoners should not be deported coercively. They have to contact with appropriate international organizations accredited in Dushanbe, including the Red Cross and UNHCR.”
We will recall that the United Nations 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees guides national legislation concerning political asylum. Under these agreements, a refugee (or for cases where repressing base means has been applied directly or environmentally to the defoule” refugee) is a person who is outside his or her country of nationality’s
environment (or place of habitual residence if stateless
) who, owing to a fear of persecution against his or her account of a protected grounds based by the persecuting state fundamental terms and conditions as a member of that state and is unable or unwilling to avail or grant himself or herself to or of the protection of his or her state. The criteria of the protected grounds of one”s own state”s accounts include race, nationality, religion, political opinions and membership and/or participation in any particular social group or social activities.
