Deportations to Iran rising despite torture concerns: Canadian Lawyer

The Globe and Mail:

A record 43 failed refugee claimants were deported last year from British Columbia to Iran despite ongoing concerns over torture and other human-rights violations there.

The number of deportations was a big jump from 27 the year before, and more than four times the total as recently as five years ago. READ MORE

The dramatic increase in sending people back to Iran has taken place as public outrage has continued to grow over the brutal torture and death of Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi in Iranian police custody in the summer of 2003.

Vancouver immigration lawyer Richard Kurland, who had represented an Iranian who died after receiving 100 lashes in prison, bitterly criticized the policy of returning refugee claimants to Iran.

He said deportees are routinely interrogated and beaten by Iranian authorities when they arrive.

"It's standard. 'Why did you embarrass our government?' Then, bang, bang, bang.
'This is for you. And report to us every week.' I don't understand the continuing failure of Canada to recognize the Iranian regime for what it is, a medieval theocracy," Mr. Kurland said yesterday.

One of those deported was Haleh Sahba, a 30-year-old former student activist in Iran who had lived in Vancouver for four years with her mother and sisters.

In spite of her family connections here and a steady work record, she was put on a plane to Tehran last December. On arrival, she was arrested and spent 26 hours in custody until a lawyer managed to arrange her release.

Ms. Sahba told her family that she was struck in the face and head twice while in prison when she refused to sign a document denouncing Canada.

Yesterday, her sister, Laleh Sahba, declined to comment on Haleh's current status in Iran. "You know the situation. I cannot say anything. Our legal advice is to be quiet," she said.

However, she added that she did want to give a message to the Canadian government. "How many Zahra Kazemis do they need in order to believe our words and our cries to keep people here and not send them back to Iran?"

Mr. Kurland, meanwhile, said he no longer takes Iranian cases because of the emotional anguish arising from the death of Mohsen Mofidi.

Mr. Mofidi had been sentenced to 100 lashes for illegal possession of a satellite dish and allowing two of his young sisters to "have boyfriends."

The family's mother, who lives in Vancouver, had been trying for several years to bring her children to join her, but Canadian embassy officials in Tehran dragged their feet, according to Mr. Kurland.

The two sisters were also sentenced to the lash, but they were granted a last-minute, temporary Canadian visa after Mr. Kurland threatened to sue immigration authorities.

But his pleas for a similar visa for Mr. Mofidi failed. Two days after being lashed, he died in hospital. "I stopped doing all Iranian cases after this," said Mr. Kurland. "I was just traumatized."

He likened Canada's increasing deportations of Iranians to the sending back of ships loaded with Jewish refugees in the days before the Second World War.

"We're revisiting that policy. We're saying: 'Once they're sent back, we don't care what happens to them.' "

Mr. Kurland said Canada's take on Iran has changed over the past few years.

"Our view is now that Iran is on the right path and we want to favour reform elements in the current regime," he said. "We don't want to rock the boat. Unfortunately, these refugees and their families have become cannon fodder for Canada's diplomatic policy."

He said the circumstances of Ms. Kazemi's death are standard for opponents of Iran's theocracy.

Statistics by the Canada Border Services Agency show that only one failed refugee claimant was deported to Iran in 1996. The number went up to 27 in 1998, but fell back to 10 the next year.