Spain Denies Asylum to Iranian Christian Convert Facing Life-threatening Persecution
A 50-year-old Iranian has dealt with hostility for 16 years, since he converted to Christianity from Islam. He fled from Iran, where he was threatened with death by his family and ended up in Barcelona, where he was helped by an evangelical church. His asylum has been rejected three times and now he lives in an unregulated situation since 2018. The hostility and violence towards his Christian faith has also continued in Barcelona, by other Iranians. He tells his story in an interview published on November 5th.
Statements of the anonymous Asylum Seeker:
"When I converted to Christ I shared it with my parents and the rest of my family. My cousins worked in a moral and religious security corps. When they found out that I was a Christian, they told me that if I didn't return to Islam they would kill me. In order to save my life and my faith I had to leave the country. Now they don't know where I am."
"When I arrived here, I found a job in an Iranian shop that sold Persian carpets. The owner had been Iran's ambassador to Italy. When he found out that I had converted to Christianity he threatened to kill me. (...) In 2011, I started working in an Iranian restaurant, but they did not accept me because they knew I was a Christian. They constantly bullied me, and in the end I was fired."
"When I had my first interview with the Spanish government in 2005, they assigned me an interpreter who told other Iranians that I had converted to Christianity. I don't know why he did that. He also threatened to report me to the embassy."
"In ten years I have changed lawyers more than eight times to try to solve my case, but when my application for the Red Card (for political asylum) was canceled in 2018, they told me that I could not do anything, that I was out of the system. (...) After trying three times, they have not allowed me to re-apply. The government told me that I was not the first person in this situation. It is a difficult, I cannot go back to Iran, I can stay here, but without moving and without papers."
Source: Evangelical Focus
Photo on Evangelical Focus