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Maryam Rajavi to UNHCR: Declare Camp Liberty a refugee camp, return residents to Ashraf

NCRI – Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, called on Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, to declare the refugee status of the residents of Camp Liberty immediately in order to protect the lives and well being of the residents. She also urged the High Commissioner to force the Iraqi government to relocate the residents of Liberty back to Ashraf. She described this as the only urgent move to prevent killing of defenseless refugees residing in Liberty.

The UNHCR declared in a document on January 19, 2012, that Liberty lacked refugee standards and did not meet Humanitarian Standards as set out by the World Health Organization (WHO). But a few days later, on January 31, 2012, Martin Kobler, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General, deceitfully declared that the camp met humanitarian standards.

The International Committee In Search of Justice (ISJ) said in a statement on February 6, 2013 that this deceitful announcement must be subject to prosecution. The statement emphasized that the transfer of Ashraf residents to Liberty was void and unlawful from the beginning and in contravention of articles 51 and 52 of 1969 Vienna Convention. The ISJ strongly called for an immediate return of Camp Liberty residents to their 26-year home in Ashraf.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
February 9, 2013