Mohammad Abbaspour, a political activist from southwestern Iran who sought asylum in Turkey, has been detained by Turkish security forces for 45 days and faces the risk of deportation or extradition to Iran, Turkish Minute reported, citing a Norway-based rights group.
Abbaspour, 45, is being held at the Pehlivanköy removal center in the northwestern province of Kırklareli, where he also began a hunger strike to protest his possible forced return, according to the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights.
Hengaw said in a statement on Monday that Turkish security forces detained Abbaspour on October 10. He was later transferred to the Kırklareli camp after being notified that he may soon be deported.
The group said Abbaspour would face a serious risk of torture, ill-treatment and severe punishment if returned to Iran because of his political activities, warning that sending him back would violate the international principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits states from returning individuals to countries where they face persecution.
Abbaspour previously lived in the Kurdistan region, where he was active with the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan. He reportedly left the area after facing pressure from Iran’s security agencies and was attempting to reach a safe country.
Hengaw urged Turkish authorities to halt any deportation proceedings and to respect international human rights obligations. The group also called on global human rights organizations and refugee-protection agencies to intervene to prevent Abbaspour’s forced return.
Hengaw, founded in 2016, documents human rights violations against Kurds in Iran.
Although a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, Turkey retains a geographic limitation that rules out granting refugee status to anyone arriving from outside Europe. As a result, the legal status of non-European migrants in the country is generally precarious. People fleeing political persecution, such as Iranian exiles and Uyghurs, are deprived of legal safeguards against refoulement, the forced return of people to countries where they face persecution.
In recent years Turkey has extradited a number of Iranians sought by Tehran. There have also been instances of abduction in which the victims disappeared and later resurfaced in the hands of Iranian authorities.
Human rights advocates say Turkey’s relationship with Iran’s government may be influencing its refugee policies. Following Iran’s political support for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after a failed 2016 coup, critics argue Ankara has been less willing to shelter Iranian dissidents.
