Dr. Zafer al-Ani, senior Iraqiya Coalition official and the Secretary General of the National Future Association stressed any relocation of Ashraf residents must take place with their consent and agreement.
“The transfer of Ashraf residents is acceptable if it is to a location outside of Iraq and based on their will,” al-Ani said in an interview with Iraq’s NINA news agency. “However, their transfer from their current base where they have lived from many years ago to a camp in Baghdad that lacks facilities of a humane life raises many questions.”
This senior Iraqiya Coalition official added: “Ashraf residents, if they are not refugees, they are asylum seekers and this legal status is in line with their condition. The UN must first of all gain their agreement, especially since they have a legal and international status. The UN must be certain the site they are being transferred to has all the necessities of a humane life and is in the same level that they are currently living in. This relocation must not be surrender to foreign plans and agendas in collusion with regimes such as the Iranian regime which continues to take advantage of Iraq’s current security and political situation.”