Iranian refugee commits suicide
International Federation of Iranian Refugees (IFIR)
Press Release
January 6, 2000
On January 3, 2000, Reza Afshar, a fifty-year-old Iranian asylum seeker,
committed suicide in protest to the policies of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Islamabad, Pakistan. Afshar who
had struggled for so long to save his life took it with his own hands
and became yet another victim of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the
new world order's inhuman refugee policies. Today, other refugees and
the International Federation of Iranian Refugees (IFIR) Branch in Pakistan
organized and paid for his burial.
Afshar had told the IFIR-Branch in Pakistan that four years ago, the
UNHCR had rejected him after asking only two non-biographical questions
pertaining to his claim. When he returned to the UNHCR on an appointed
date to obtain their decision on his claim, the agency seized his UN letter
and closed his casefile. The Pakistani authorities then imprisoned him
for 40 months. When the government finally released him recently, Afshar
returned to seek assistance from the UNHCR. He was sleeping in front
of that office (located across from the embassy of the Islamic Republic
of Iran) for lack of accommodations. After presenting several letters
requesting assistance, the UNHCR gave him a notice that his case remained
closed. Distraught and unwilling to return to Iran, Afshar took his own
life with sleeping pills.
IFIR condemns the UNHCR's utter disregard for refugee lives and holds
that agency directly responsible for Afshar's death. The UNHCR's bureaucracy,
lengthy determination procedures, interrogatory interviews, lack of a
satisfactory appeals process, and withholding of reasons for rejection
are responsible for Afshar's death. The UNHCR's non-provision of any
financial and living assistance to asylum seekers, and its failure to
provide adequate protection and resettlement opportunities are responsible
for innumerable such acts of desperation and lost lives in Pakistan and
elsewhere.
IFIR calls on all to condemn the UNHCR Pakistan's violations of Reza
Afshar's (case number I-16056) human rights by sending protest letter
to the UNHCR in Pakistan (e-mail: pakis@unhcr.ch
or fax: +92-5127-9455) and the UNHCR in Geneva (e-mail: webmaster@unhcr.ch,
+41-22-739-7353).
For more information: contact Maryam Namazie, IFIR, GPO, PO Box 7051,
New York, NY 10116. Tel: 212-747-1046. Fax: 212-425-7260. E-mail:
chairngo@aol.com. Website: www.hambastegi.org
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