Press Statement
We urge the Iraqi government to cooperate with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in resolving the issue of “Ashraf”
Closing the refugee camp, their repression and expulsion from Iraq is against international laws and the Iraqi people’s interests
Following the announced ultimatum by the Iraqi central government to close the Iranian refugee camp in Diyala Province (Camp Ashraf), and in parallel with widespread international activities to defend the human rights of the defenseless and unarmed residents of this camp, and in protest to the inhumane plan to expel the residents from our country’s territories, and also in light of the three-year-long siege of Camp Ashraf and two bloody attacks against the residents of this camp, especially the serious threats that pose against these refugees at the moment, we acknowledge the defense of the camp residents’ human rights as a humanitarian obligation for ourselves and any human-loving individual or movement.
From the beginning of 2009, Camp Ashraf – situated in the Diyala Province and home to 3400 Iranian political refugee – in addition to an all-out siege has been attacked many times and to this date, 47 refugees, whom have been protected under the Fourth Geneva Convention, have been killed and hundreds of others injured. The latest measure against them has been the attempt to expel them by the end of 2011.
Numerous important figures, politicians, parliamentarians, academics and organizations throughout Europe, the US and internationally have called on the Iraqi state to revoke this “deadline” and give the UN the opportunity to resolve this problem in a peaceful manner in the context of international laws.
– Ad Melkert, UN Secretary General Special Representative in Iraq objected to the expulsion of the PMOI (Payaminz News agency, 30 August 2011).
– The UN High Commissioner for Refugees announced on 13 September 2011 that it officially recognizes the Ashraf residents as protected asylum seekers and calls on the Iraqi Government to extend the deadline to close Ashraf.
– Amnesty International in a 1 November 2011 public statement called on the Iraqi Government to extend the deadline on the residents of Camp New Iraq and that if not the residents of this camp are faced with a serious risk of severe human rights violations.
The signatories of this declaration noting that “the rights of Camp Ashraf residents as part of the neighboring Iranian people whom were forced to depart from their country as a result of tyranny and oppression in Iran and have resided in Iraq for nearly 25 years, must be respected and recognized by the Iraqi central government. They also declared that “the repression of these refugees is the other side of the coin of aggressions against the Kurdistan region territories and is in defiance to the sovereignty of Iraq, international laws and the interest of our people.”
The signatories and sponsors of this declaration, while announcing their support of the European Parliament plan and the positions of the UN and Amnesty International in peacefully resolving the issue of Ashraf, said: “We call on the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to reaffirm the legal status of Ashraf residents, their benefit of international protection and the continuation of their residence in our country; and to raise the UN flag at Camp Ashraf”.
This declaration has to this date been sponsored by 121 parliamentarians, political and social figures, human rights and women’s rights activists, authors, journalists, and civil society organizations, including the Global Federation of NGO’s and the Kurdistan Parliamentarian’s Union.

 
Campaign organizers
Adnan Anwar, Shahoo Goran and Tareq Carizi