eubusiness.com, Brussels, 1 Dec 2011 – European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Thursday called for a “satisfactory outcome” in the complex relocation of 3,400 Iranian dissidents due to be expelled from a camp in Iraq.
As EU foreign ministers prepared to discuss controversial efforts to close Camp Ashraf north of Baghdad, Ashton said she had held talks on the issue both with US authorities and with UN officials monitoring Iraq’s closure of the camp.
“The critical thing is to keep 3,400 people safe,” Ashton said.
Camp Ashraf has been home to members of the People’s Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) since the 1980s.
But Iraq is intent on closing it by year’s end in what PMOI leaders say is a plot designed by Tehran to eliminate the dissidents.
PMOI exiles in Europe, who staged a demonstration outside EU offices Thursday, have enlisted the support of around 100 European parliamentarians who have warned of the impending “slaughter” of the dissidents failing the presence of UN or US forces to protect them.
“We are trying to work very closely with the UN who are in the lead on this, and whose responsibility it is to try and find a suitable and satisfactory outcome, to give these people a new home, to return them to where they wish to go,” Ashton said.
Iraq says it is exercising its sovereignty in closing the facility which has been home to the exiles for 30 years.
But PMOI and its MEP supporters fear harm may come during the relocation of the dissidents to another facility pending one-on-one interviews by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to determine where each wants to go.
“Plans have been developed to mount a massive attack on Ashraf within the coming month, involving the Iraqi military, the Iraqi police,” said MEP Struan Stevenson.
Ashton is to ask ministers how many refugees each country can take, with others going to the United States, Canada and Australia.