Since Iran’s dramatic crackdown on anti-government protesters after the disputed 2009 presidential election, hundreds of Iranian activists have fled harassment and detention to seek temporary refuge in Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan, according to a new report released Friday, Dec 13, by Human Rights Watch.
According to The Jerusalem Post, the 62-page report, “Why they Left: Stories of Iranian Activists in Exile,” documents the experiences of dozens of rights defenders, journalists, bloggers and human rights lawyers who say they were targeted by security and intelligence forces because they criticized the government.
HRW says that while the brutal crackdown is no longer in the news, its affects are still felt in Iran, where it has “profoundly affected civil society,” according to Joe Stork, HRW’s deputy Middle East director.
“The images of police beating protesters mercilessly may have faded from television and computer screens, but many Iranian activists continue to make the painful choice to abandon homes and families,” Stork said.
HRW says that since 2009, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of civil society activists who have applied for asylum and resettlement to third countries.
The report cites United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) statistics which say Iranians filed 11,537 new asylum applications to 44 countries in 2009; 15,185 in 2010; and 18,128 in 2011.
According to HRW, since 2005 dozens of journalists and bloggers have left Iran because of increasing limitations and threats.
According to Reporters Without Borders as of August 2012 there were at least 44 journalists and bloggers in prison and on Tuesday, the Committee to Protect Journalists named Iran the second-worst jailer of journalists, after Turkey. (Notably, Iran’s state-controlled media ignored the criticism, headlining on Wednesday with “Turkey is World’s Worst Jailer of Journalists.”) The HRW report details several cases of attacks on Iranian civil society, including the notorious “Iran Proxy Affair,” in which the Iranian authorities arrested 30 members of several human rights groups, accusing them of participating in a CIA-sponsored plot to attack the Iranian government through cyber-warfare.
Some of those arrested are still in prison, while others are on bail or awaiting summonses to serve jail terms. Five others managed to flee Iran for Turkey.
HRW say that those activists who managed to flee Iran for Turkey or Iraqi Kurdistan now face an uncertain future as refugees and asylum-seekers.
