DEPORTED TO DANGER - Edmund Rice Centre

IraqC12 details problems at the Jordanian/Iraq border where they were delayed until lateafternoon. This led to a dangerous high-speed journey across the desert. Their troublesincreased when the taxi-driver stopped short of their destination to demand more money.Denied this he refused to go on, left them in the dark and turned back. Having found anothertaxi they were eventually deposited in front of a hospital near a family home of one of themat 12.30 am. Extremely stressed by the journey, they were more distressed that IOM haddeserted them.In panic and fearing for his life, C12 rang his family. To come and collect him theyhad to risk their own lives and ignore the curfew. On the return drive across Baghdad, theywere stopped by Iraqi police vehicles because they were breaking the strict curfew. C12’sAustralian travel documents were written in English which the police could not read. Theysearched the car and C12’s luggage then threatened to arrest and imprison him. He wasforced to pay bribes to secure his release.IranD2 was handed over to Iranian officials on arrival in Iran and detained for 3 days atthe airport in a room the size of a bathroom and then released on bail – the title to hisparents’ house. (The Iranian officials kept this document for 6-7 months while they wereinvestigating his case.) At the airport he was interviewed with repeated questioning: ‘Whydid you go and when did you go? What was the reason? What was your problem with thegovernment?’ And things like that.When we were being questioned we were told not to say anything, just to write, towrite them answers, to put it in writing. And when I finished writing they told me that this isall rubbish and then ‘you went there to be a refugee’. And every month, every time I wastaken, there was all the writing from the previous months. And it was like a case officer thatcompleted ‘You said this, you said that’…And then if I had told a lie and could not findunderneath a statement, I would be imprisoned for lying because that would be in thedocuments.When D2 eventually applied for a passport in Iran, he was told that his travel paper,issued by the Iranian embassy in Australia, had a number on it that identified that he hadbeen in detention in Australia. The official at the passport office said this number meant thathe was ‘supposed to be treated badly’.D3 has a similar story. Deported and not allowed to pack his own bags, he askedpermission to throw away some documents that were in his possession. He feared that hewould get into trouble in Tehran if these documents were found on him. The DIMIAofficial refused to allow him access to his bags. He then asked the airline security for accessand they promised that they would help when they stopped at Dubai. On arrival therehowever, security changed shifts and the new guards refused him access.Like D2, he was detained at the airport: For three days I was questioned, and justall the time I was being questioned and then after 3 days I was allowed to make a phonecall home to ask them to bring the documents for bail. The questioning this time, he sayswas more specific and more detailed. They were focussing on religious issues, onChristianity and why did you convert to Christianity and obviously I haven’t accepted thatidea otherwise it would be dangerous. They were asking who else was in the camp and30