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We are calling on the EU, US secretary of state and the UN to act as a matter of urgency over the Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki's plans to move 3,400 Iranian refugees from their home in Camp Ashraf to a new base that amounts to nothing more than a prison. An agreement to move the refugees to a new home – Camp Liberty – is being eroded as details of Liberty's conditions emerge.

The new camp is to be surrounded by a 4m-high wall, its residents will not have freedom of movement inside or outside the camp or access to their lawyers and family members, while sanitation, water and eating facilities are limited. This is contrary to the memorandum of understanding agreed between the Iraqi government and the UN in December, which sought to protect the human rights of the residents.

The UN must act to ensure that Camp Liberty genuinely meets the requirements and gives its residents their "protected persons" status, along with the status recently accorded to them by the UN refugee agency UNHCR as asylum seekers. The UN must also act to show it has an important role to play in the new Iraq in upholding the ... >>>