17 February 2012
Relocation of 400 residents to camp Liberty proof of extreme flexibility of Ashraf residents and their leadership
Time for action by EU, US and UN
As a goodwill gesture, four hundred residents of camp Ashraf are moving to camp Liberty on February 17. Although they were deprived of a lot of their most basic rights with minimum acceptable conditions denied, they accepted the move based on the recommendation of Mrs. Maryam Rajavi following her widespread activities and interventions on their behalf.
They were not permitted to visit the place they are moving to before their move; they were not allowed to take a lot of their personal belongings with them; and they were only allowed to take along 10 vehicles out of some 150 they own. They have no freedom of movement in camp Liberty. The surface area provided in camp Liberty is less than 1.5% of Ashraf’s total surface area, with a Police station and a large number of police forces present inside this restricted area.
Clearly this transfer was unnecessary when the residents had already accepted the European Parliament’s plan for relocation to third countries. They had each individually applied for asylum to the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees in August 2011 and had the Iraqi government permitted the Refugee status interview procedure to begin at that time, a significant number of them would have been relocated out of Iraq by now.
So with the transfer of the first 400 people to Camp Liberty, the Ashraf residents and the camp leaders, as well as the leadership of the PMOI, have taken every possible step and have shown amazing flexibility. From here on it is up to the Iraqi government, the UN, the US and the EU to play their part and take responsibility to prevent any further negligence of the residents’ rights. First of all the UNHCR should promptly determine the refugee status of the residents and the US and the EU should open their doors to accept those people on their territories. In respect of Camp Liberty and the rights of its residents, the following should be respected without failure:
1- The police station should be moved promptly out of the camp. While Liberty is a small area of half a square kilometre with all the entries controlled by the police
and all movements controlled by them, and while Moslem women live in the camp, far from being proof of Iraqi sovereignty, the police presence would only contribute to tension and possible confrontation. This is the most important issue to be resolved, without which the relocation project would certainly end in total failure.
2- The residents should be permitted to take along their vehicles and their movable property with no limitation to camp Liberty, with measures taken to sell the rest of their belongings in order to use the income for paying expenses in camp Liberty and expenses related to their final relocation.
3- Any presence of representatives or agents of the Iranian regime inside or around camp Liberty should be prohibited.
4- The wellbeing and security of all residents should be guaranteed with nobody arrested until transfer to third countries takes place and nobody relocated to another place without his or her consent.
5- Direct and free access to medical services in Iraq should be guaranteed.
6- Freedom of movement of the residents should be guaranteed, but if the Iraqi government is not prepared to accept this fundamental right then the surface area devoted to the residents should be increased in order to let them build sports and recreational facilities. Prison-like conditions should be minimised.
7- The camp should be fully accessible to journalists, lawyers and families of the residents.
In order to avoid a transformation to prison-like conditions, the above mentioned points should be respected; without such points being implemented and especially if the police presence is continued, the Camp Liberty project will be doomed to fail and no more transfers could be envisaged. In any case, under the ‘revolving door’ procedure favoured by UNHCR, new transfers can only take place after the current 400 residents are relocated to third countries.

Struan Stevenson MEP
President of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Iraq