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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iranian Kurds who fled to Germany face an uphill battle to stay in the country, according to asylum seekers who spoke to Rudaw.
Dawud Haidari arrived in Germany five years ago. Holding his ID card containing his deportation stamp, he told Rudaw that he was a Peshmerga fighter for the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran for eleven years.
Fearing for his life in Iran, he applied for asylum in Germany but has had his claim rejected by a court on three occasions.
According to Haidari, the court ruled that there is no threat to his life in Iran.
“I have given them proof and documents of the Kurdistan’s Democratic Party of Iran saying that this person is our activist and Peshmerga member,” Haidari told Rudaw’s Germany correspondent Alla Shalli on Tuesday.
The court asked him to visit the Iranian embassy in Germany to get an Iranian ID card and return to his home country. However, for Dawud, even visiting the Iranian embassy is a death sentence.
“In the last document I gave the court it has been stated that Dawud Haidari is a great terrorist of the Kurdistan’s Democratic party of Iran…I am sure that if I am not executed at the least I would be sentenced to life imprisonment,” he added.
Despite the setbacks, Dawud is trying to learn German, but is not permitted to work. With no clear vision for his future, he now lives in a refugee camp in Dusseldorf.
Kölner Flüchtlingsrates e.V. is a refugee and human rights organization that provides refugees with legal consultation to help with asylum claims.
“Deportation to Iran has not stopped. They have to have a lot of credible evidence, and this is not easy. ..the only solution for those who have to leave Germany is through the regional committee or the committee of the state of emergency in the regional parliament. For this they must prepare themselves well,” said director Claus-Ulrich Prolb.
Nadir Allahyari is another asylum seeker from Iran. He was a Peshmerga fighter for the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran and left for Germany with his wife. They have been also had their asylum applications rejected.
Speaking to Rudaw’s Hemen Abdulla on Friday, Nadir said the authorities did not focus on the threats they face in Iran.
“The questions the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees asked me were only economic questions, such as ‘How much is a villa in Tehran?’ ‘How is euro is exchanged to Iranian tomans?’ They told me that my documents are not credible and asked me to get an Iranian passport.”
Serdar Yuksel is a Kurdish member of the German parliament. He was also interviewed on the Friday show.
“The regional courts follow the decisions of the federal courts. They can’t appeal the decision. Any asylum seeker whose application is rejected won’t be allowed to stay here and will be deported to Iran. He has to provide a specific committee strong and credible documents saying that he is under the threat of being executed or imprisoned, then they will be granted asylum and can stay here.”
According to statistics from Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, 2,278 people from Iran have applied for asylum in 2020. In 2019, nearly 10,000 people applied for asylum. 39 people were deported in the same year. In 2018, nearly 12,000 people applied for asylum and 22 people were deported.
Additional reporting by Alla Shalli
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