In short, it is time for the MEK to make the decision to start the move out of Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty-Hurriya from where they can begin new lives outside of Iraq. A peaceful solution, no matter what the circumstances, is the only acceptable solution, but it is time to move forward.Now, with that, I’ll take your questions. And – oh, I should add that the UN head of mission in Iraq Martin Kobler and I were in Europe late last week discussing ..
UNHCR has been for some time and remains ready to undertake verification and refugee status adjudication for the residents of Camp New Iraq (formerly Camp Ashraf) who are persons of concern. It has mobilized teams on the ground, and has put in place the necessary soft and hard ware support capabilities. Individual interviews will need to take place in a safe, neutral and confidential location. UNHCR attaches utmost importance to ..
The plan by the UN to temporarily relocate the residents of camp Ashraf to a safer location, where the UN will be able to check whether they are entitled to refugee status, is definitely the first step in the right direction, Brok said in s statement..“I therefore appeal to the leadership of the camp to engage in this process without delay and I call on the government of Iraq, which has a clear responsibility to respect human rights and humanitarian law, to ..
A memorandum outlining the voluntary relocation of Iranian dissidents in Iraq must be honored for the sake of peace, the U.N. special envoy to Iraq said. Kobler said the United Nations is ready to help Iraq organize the voluntary relocation.In December, Baghdad and the United Nations signed a memorandum of understanding outlining the voluntary relocation of members of the People’s Mujahedin/MKO/MEK/PMOI of Iran from their enclave..
..Rajavi leadership is keeping some members in the camp to use as a bargaining chip in their effort to manipulate American opinion. Basically the Rajavi’s are lobbying the US government to change the official status of the Mojahedin Khalq aka MEK/MKO/PMOI — from a terrorist designated organization to a regular organization. According to the US State Department , currently their official status remains a “terrorist organization.
One of the enduring urban legends of this process is that the MEK’s aka MKO/PMOI current status as a foreign terrorist organization, so listed by the American Government, is in itself a great impediment to resettlement and that removing them from that list would suddenly make many more eligible that are not now eligible. That apparently, as it has been explained to me by those very familiar with American immigration laws, is not true…
It ends a tense standoff with the Iraqi government, which has repeatedly vowed to close the 25-year-old camp.Earlier this week, Iraq and the UN agreed to resettle the camp’s more than 3,000 residents.Those living in the camp, about 40 miles (65 km) north of Baghdad, were part of the People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK/PMOI), which fought alongside Iraqi soldiers during the Iran-Iraq war.
The first 400 of the more than 3,000 members of the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran – which Iraq earlier this year had threatened with mass expulsion – are ready”as a goodwill gesture”to transfer with their movable property and vehicles”at the first opportunity”to the former Camp Liberty at Baghdad International Airport, the group’s leader, Maryam Rajavi, announced.
The head of an Iranian exile group holed up at a camp in Iraq said Wednesday that the first of the camp’s residents are ready to move to a new location picked by the Iraqi government, solving a potential crisis…Rajavi’s statement also gave rare insight into a camp that was built during the 1980s and has largely been closed off to the outside world. The group’s residents have not left the camp for years, and the little contact they have with outsiders is through the Iraqi military, visiting diplomats and aid agencies.
It pointed out that the MOU was signed by the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Iraq, Martin Cobler and the Iraqi Council of Ministers’ Adviser for National Security Affairs, Faleh al-Fayad.”The United Nation’s attention in this issue had stemmed from a mere humanitarian viewpoint, as it had exerted its utmost effort to find out a neutral, peaceful and permanent settlement for the affairs of Ashraf residents conditions,”..