Iranian Australians upset over asylum debate

(Transcript from World News Australia Radio)

Iranian Australian community groups have attacked the major political parties' rhetoric in the asylum seeker debate, claiming some migrants from their homeland are being unfairly stigmatised.

Both the Coalition and Labor have argued that growing numbers of Iranians arriving in Australia by boat should be regarded as economic migrants rather than asylum seekers fleeing genuine persecution.

But some Iranian Australian groups disagree, claiming there has been ongoing persecution directed at minority groups and human rights activists in Iran over many years.

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On the sidelines of a meeting in Perth this month Foreign Minister Julie Bishop discussed the growing number of Iranians coming to Australia with Iranian officials.

Like her Labor predecessor, Bob Carr, Ms Bishop has argued that most Iranians arriving by boat are middle class economic migrants who come from the majority religious group in Iran - that is, Shi'ite Muslims.

A spokeswoman for Ms Bishop says the two governments have been discussing a possible bilateral agreement covering repatriation of Iranians arriving by boat back to Iran if they are deemed not to be refugees.

The number of Iranians who arrived by boat and sought asylum has grown rapidly from only 13 in the 2008-09 financial year.

The Immigration Department says it received refugee applications from more than four-thousand Iranians who arrived by boat in the 2012-13 financial year.

This makes Iranians the second largest source country for boat arrivals, behind Sri Lanka, with almost 5,000.

Iranian-born Sydney refugee advocate Mohammed Sadeghpour fled political persecution in Iran in the mid 1990s after his brother and sister were executed over their political activism in the country.

His formed the activist group, Australian Supporters of Democracy in Iran.

Mr Sadegpour believes minority ethnic groups and political activists are still targeted in the country and public executions are still common.

And he says this has increased since the 2009 election when former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered the arrest of opposition activists and journalists.

"Journalists Without Borders calls Iran the largest prisoner in the Middle East. Those who are risking their lives and are coming to Australia by boat- they are escaping from a repressive regime. Iran has got the worst record in terms of human rights violations- it has the second highest number of executions in the world after China. So the Iranians are looking for a better life."

Nosrat Hosseini is the head of the Melbourne-based Iranian Women's Association.

She says her family was forced out of Iran in 1989 because of their political activism.

She believes political and religious persecution is still widespread in Iran, despite the election of a new President Hassan Rouhani this year who is considered by many western governments to be more moderate than his predecessor.

Ms Hosseini says minority religious groups are still not free to openly practise their faith in Iran and she believes this is leading many Iranians to seek asylum in other countries like Australia.

"I mean, I've come across Christians including Iranians who have converted to Christianity and they have had to flee because they're unable to practise their religion freely and openly so they have had to do that in secret."

Nosrat Hosseini says Iran also has repressive laws which discriminate against women.

"Women have less rights than their male counterparts. If a woman is convicted of committing adultery, she is buried up to her neck and stoned to death and a male convicted of adultery is buried up to his waist. If he has an opportunity to escape which is more probable than a female in that situation, he is free to go and his conviction is quashed. So even in the methods that they employ to execute women, women's lives are seen to be less than men's."

International refugee law expert, Associate Professor Alex Reilly questions the federal government and opposition's claims that most Iranians coming to Australia by boat are economic migrants rather than genuine asylum seekers.

The University of Adelaide academic agrees Iran has a questionable human rights record, and this is a key factor driving many Iranians to risk dangerous boat journeys from Indonesia to Australia.

"We certainly know that the Iranian government that was elected in 2009 was elected under controversial circumstances and democracy groups which complained about it were not treated well. There is certainly evidence of that because Iranians are found to be refugees around the world. We've got to remember that all the Iranians who arrive here by boat or by plane are put through a rigorous process to determine whether they are refugees and that includes interviewing individuals to find out what their personal stories are, but then matching that against the most up to date country information that we have on what's happening generally in Iran. If those stories don't match up to that country information then it's unlikely that somebody is going to be found to be a genuine refugee."

Immigration Department figures from the 2011-12 financial year show more than 850 Iranians who arrived by boat gained protection visas.

The department rejected asylum to almost 550 other Iranians who arrived by boat in the same period.

No figures are available on the asylum seekers who arrived by boat after August the 13th last year, when the former Labor government reintroduced processing on Manus Island and Nauru.

Nosrat Hosseini from the Iranian Women's Association says she is concerned about any move to repatriate failed asylum seekers back to Iran because she believes they could simply return to face ongoing persecution in their homeland.

"It's alarming as there would definitely be repercussions, especially for those who have come here and have made the Australian government aware that they are either political activists or they have been critical of the Iranian regime or whether they are members of a religious minority, there will definitely be repercussions. They will face persecution and it was for that reason that they would have fled Iran in the first place."