• Print
• E-Mail
• Feedback

07/26/2010

Germany is offering asylum to 50 Iranian dissidents who fled Iran last year after the failed "Green Revolution"and who have been stranded in Turkey since then. The German Interior Ministry confirmed that 12 of them have entered Germany since the middle of June and that one more is expected this week. Additionally, 26 further refugees have been selected by the German Office for Migration and Refugees and a further 11 are still undergoing checks.

Initially, Germany had only agreed to grant asylum to between 10 and 20 dissidents in order to keep its promise to stand by supporters of the June 2009 uprising against the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The protests were put down by force, resulting in scores of deaths and arrests.

After criticism from exiled Iranians in Germany and from the organization Reporters Without Borders, Germany's 16 regional states agreed to increase the number to 50. The Berlin-based human rights activist Mehran Barati said most of the Iranians, mainly journalists critical of the Iranian regime, live in Berlin. Others are moving to the city of Hamburg and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia after regional authorities there agreed to take them in.

After his initial criticism of the long time it was taking to process the asylum requests, Barati has declared himself satisfied with the efforts of the German government. But he added that he hoped significantly more than 50 dissidents would eventually be granted entry. He said there were signs that the number will be increased following a recent change in government in North Rhine-Westphalia. There, a center-left alliance of Social Democrats and Greens took power, replacing the previous center-right coalition. The new state administration is considered more sympathetic towards granting asylum in general. In Germany, regional states have powers to grant asylum.