Iranians arrive on one-way flight to the West
BY: Daniel McGrory
The Times (London)
August 31, 2000
THE excited passengers pouring off the charter flight from Iran yesterday
made no secret of why they had really come to Sarajevo airport.
Their arms wrapped around each other, groups of mainly young, single
men boasted that this was only a brief stop on their way to Berlin or London.
A 21-year-old computer technician was so confident that he tore up the
return half of his Pounds 300 airline ticket, announcing that he was never
going home. "My brother lives in London and I will be joining him,"
he said.
Two Iranian diplomats watched with quiet satisfaction as around 130
passengers eased their way through immigration checks in a matter of minutes
yesterday with their passports stamped. Officials in the passport booths
did not bother to ask any of them for the purpose of their visit.
As the first passengers appeared in the cramped arrivals area, half
a dozen Bosnian minders, all hiding behind dark glasses, moved among the
new arrivals, pointing to where they wanted them to go. None of these supposed
holidaymakers was carrying much luggage, only rucksacks, carrier bags or
holdalls.
On the tarmac, police and airport officials were making sure no one
got too close to the green and white Mahan Air aircraft.
One senior policeman revealed that his Government had given specific
instructions that, at the request of the Iranians, no one was to photograph
the Russian-built Tupolev Tu124. This Mahan Air flight is becoming one
of the most regular customers at the airport and yet it has no office there,
nor does it appear on the normal daily schedules in the control tower.
The Iranians were led to some waste ground, where 15 cars were waiting.
From here, the cars would head off in different directions, most on obscure
routes to border crossings, where couriers in Croatia were waiting for
them. Marcus Wieschhoff, of the International Organisation for Migration,
said that where this group of Iranians end up depended on whether the smugglers
kept their word to get them to Britain and Germany. "If there is any
risk, at the first sign of trouble, they will ditch them," he said.
The Mahan Air flight had been packed coming in, as it is every day.
Just under an hour after it landed, the Russian jet taxied away from the
terminal with just a handful on board for the return journey.
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