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Camden New Journal - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 12 July 2007

Artist’s plight brushed away

• THE disgusting decision by the Home Office to refuse asylum to Behnam Askari and his mother (Iranian artist faces lashes after bid for asylum fails, July 5) highlights the nauseating hypocrisy of this government, particularly over the issue of Iran.
On the one hand they seem prepared to support whatever measures (including a possible illegal military attack) the Americans wish to take against Iran on the basis of wholly false allegations that they are developing a military-nuclear capacity. Iran is not in breach of the non-proliferation treaty. Yet at the same time they stick to the view that Iran does not have a human rights problem – the only basis for the decision.
Iran, in fact, has one of the worst human rights problems on Earth and there are no grounds for sending anyone back there when they are certain to face imprisonment, torture and even death.
Whether you are a dissident Muslim, a member of another religion, a trade unionist, a socialist or otherwise, opposed to the regime, it is simply not safe to return. The Home Office must be made to recognise this because there are many similar cases in the pipeline, and Iran is not the only dangerous country to which asylum seekers continue to be deported (Iraq and Zimbabwe are examples).
The government must stop pandering to the anti-immigration brigade and honour its obligations under international law.
ED MCARTHUR
Theobalds Road, WC1

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, Camden New Journal, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@camdennewjournal.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Tuesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number. Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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