WASHINGTON, Jan 25 — The Trump administration plans to repatriate Iranian migrants from the United States despite their home country still reeling from massive protests during which thousands were killed, according to an Iranian-American NGO.
The deportation flights would be the first to Iran since the beginning of the mass uprisings in the country, which peaked in early January before being violently repressed.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to launch military strikes on Iran in response to the crackdown, but has since appeared to walk back those threats after he said Tehran suspended planned executions.
The National Iranian American Council (NIAC) said on Thursday it had learned that Trump’s administration was planning to restart deportation flights to Iran, after prior removals in September and December.
“The same administration that promised Iranians that ‘help is on the way’ amid a deadly crackdown is now forcibly sending Iranians back into danger,” said NIAC president Jamal Abdi.
Abolfazl Mehrabadi, a diplomat representing Tehran’s interests in the United States, told Iran’s official IRNA news agency on Saturday that about 40 Iranians were to be deported.
They will depart on Sunday from an airport in Phoenix, Arizona, he said.
Among them are two gay men who face execution in Iran, where homosexuality is punishable by death, according to a statement from the American Immigration Council, an immigrant advocacy organization representing them.
The two men are currently being held in an immigration detention center in Arizona, and legal proceedings to prevent their deportation are still ongoing, according to the organization.
The US Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to AFP queries about the planned deportations. — AFP
