A Kurdish human rights activist sentenced to death in Iran has been detained in Turkey and now faces deportation, the Mezopotamya News Agency (MA) reported.
According to MA, Soran Aram was detained in Ankara and sent to a repatriation center despite having United Nations refugee status and approval for resettlement in Canada.
In a video message from the repatriation center, Aram appealed to human rights organizations to contact the Canadian Embassy in Ankara to expedite the transfer of him and his family.
His relatives in Iran have reportedly been pressured by Iranian intelligence to persuade him to return.
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.
