Iranian Christian Asylum Seeker Assaulted and Burned by Employer in Turkey

Mohabat News – “Pressures and threats against Christian converts are increasing tremendously inside Iran. Severe sentences are being issued for converts with an Islamic background and this is the primary reason these converts flee their homeland and apply to the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for refugee status. However, it seems that UNHCR decision makers do not understand the seriousness of this issue.

Iranian Christian news agency, Mohabat News notes that before the Islamic revolution all religious minorities, including Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians could conveniently and securely speak about their faith. After the Islamic revolution and after the Islamic regime came to power, although it stressed freedom of religion, this was just one side of the story. The regime proceeded to break its own constitution, generated a terrorizing atmosphere and put growing pressure on churches through its security organizations.

People with different beliefs, especially Christians, were subjected to arrest, imprisonment, threat and torture. The string of executions of outstanding Iranian Christian figures and pastors is a prime example of that. The laws are even being tightened more and more as time goes by. Such pressures and threats as well as heavy sentences cause Christian converts with an Islamic background to flee their homeland and seek refuge through the UNHCR office in Ankara. However, interviewers and decision makers at the UNHCR fail to understand their grievous situations and often turn down their asylum appeals.

Yousef Fallah Ranjbar is one of these asylum seekers who is currently awaiting a decision on his case in Turkey. Like other asylum seekers in Turkey, Fallah Ranjbar had to work in order to survive. However he was brutally assaulted by his Turkish employer with hot water and his body was severely burned.

In a recent contact with the Association in Support of Iranian Asylum Seekers in Turkey, Ranjbar related some tragic facts and explained what has happened to him during these years.” Read more.