NNorth Rhine-Westphalia stops deportations to Iran with immediate effect. The North Rhine-Westphalian Minister for Integration and Refugees, Josefine Paul (Greens), announced on Saturday evening that the current demonstrations in Iran and the harsh actions of the Iranian security forces clearly showed how dramatic the current human rights situation in the country is. Against this background, it is “irresponsible to deport people there at the moment”. NRW is therefore suspending returns to Iran until further notice.
North Rhine-Westphalia stands “in solidarity with the Iranians who fight for women’s rights, for freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and against torture and the death penalty,” said the minister in Düsseldorf. But NRW is also continuing to rely on a nationwide solution, she emphasized. She expects the federal government to quickly decide on a coordinated approach with the states.
Lower Saxony had already announced on Thursday that it would not deport any more people to Iran for the time being. “The human rights situation is catastrophic and the situation is becoming more dramatic every day,” said Interior Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD).
Bavaria’s interior minister Joachim Herrman (CSU) announced that the conference of interior ministers would probably deal with a suspension of deportations to Iran. As chairman of the conference of interior ministers, he was responding to a request by Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD).
The current protests were triggered by the death of the young Kurd Mahsa Amini. The 22-year-old died in Iran on September 16 after being arrested by vice squads in Tehran three days earlier on charges of not wearing her headscarf in accordance with regulations. According to human rights organizations, around 90 people have since been killed in Iran during the violent crackdown on the demonstrators by the authorities.
