[mobglob-discuss] MOTHER AGONIZES OVER SON'S DEPORTATION

[Alan Ward]

MOTHER AGONIZES OVER IMMIGRATION’S DECISION
TO DEPORT HER SON BACK TO IRAN

by Alicia Barsallo – Coordinator – Committee for Equality for Immigrants and
New Canadians (604-879-3246)

              Masoumeh Kazemian and her son Amir Kazemian (39) came to
Canada to escape persecution and torture in Iran.  She has been allowed to
stay but, incomprehensibly, not her son.
             Both Amir and his father, Freedon Kazemian, were politically
active in opposition to the Khomeni regime in Iran.  Freedon Kazemian became
the leader of an opposition party that is struggling to achieve democracy in
Iran and to separate church from state.  Amir helped him politically.  They
were tortured for this and also imprisoned at different times for 1 and 7
years respectively.
             During her husband and son’s imprisonment, Masoumeh had to
ignore her grief in order to continue working at her job of many years as a
loan manager for an Iranian oil company.  She could only see her loved ones
once a month for 10 or 15 minutes and had her house frequently raided and
was frequently taken away by government agents to be questioned.  She fell
into a deep depression and found it hard to sleep.
             Amir left Iran in 1997 and sought refugee status in Canada.
Masoumeh joined him in April of 2000.  Her husband was only able to leave
Iran in 2003 when, having had a debilitating stroke, he was permitted to
leave Iran for England on medical grounds in 2003.
      Masoumeh was recognized a convention refugee by Canada in 2001 on
identical grounds to those that have forced her son Amir out of his country.
Amir Kazemian, who has never recovered from being handcuffed, hung by the
hands for eight hours, and poked with nails during interrogation in a jail
north of Tehran in 1984, was ordered deported by Canadian Immigration last
June 15th.
             For Masoumeh all the grief and depression she was feeling in
Iran have come back.  She can hardly hold her tears when answering my
questions in a still struggling English.  And she now walks from place to
place with a picture of her son and a letter in her hand asking people to
sign it.
             Amir Kazemi, in danger of torture or even execution if returned
to Iran, has received asylum in the Saint Michael Anglican Church near E.
Broadway and Kingsway.  His deportation order comes in contradiction with an
April 2004 Immigration decision to approve his permanent residency in
principle.
             Fighting for Kazemi’s right to stay in Canada is VAST
(Vancouver Association for Survivors of Torture), an organization headed by
Frances McQueen, formerly active with Amnesty International, that is coming
face to face with an increasingly hardened, unfair and arbitrary immigration
and refugee system.

Ms Masoumeh Kazemi can be reached at 604-421-0422.

Messages to The Right Honourable Mr. Paul Martin, Martin.P at parl.gc.ca, ph.
(613)992-4211, fax (613)941-6900, House of Commons, Parliament Buildings,
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6 [no postage necessary], and to The Honourable Ms
Anne McLellan, Solicitor-General, mclellan.a at parl.gc.ca , ph.(613)992-4524,
fax (613)943-0044, www.annemclellan.ca, would be appreciated.