Thank you very much for the actually critical question that you're asking.
I do want to clarify that while I previously represented the residents for about a year and a half in relation to the arbitrary detention, for the last year and a half I have not represented them directly. I've been working with the German NGO through which I did this report that has been indirectly supportive of them and their situation.
Currently we have seen only 300 resettled in total, less than 10% of the total population. About 200 have gone to Albania. About 100 have gone to a number of different EU countries and a handful of Scandinavian countries. But we've seen very, very little progress in that regard.
As an international human rights lawyer, my focus has been on what tools exist currently that would enable us to expedite their resettlement. One doesn't have to have a position on the political orientation of this particular group. One only needs to be a fellow human being to see what they are suffering and to want to end that suffering.
I've advocated that UNHCR, as it's done on many occasions in the past...including, by the way, in a place in Iraq, Camp Makmur, where PKK residents openly carry weapons and where UNHCR did a group determination. Such a path could be followed with respect to the PMOI. It is a death penalty offence to be a member of the PMOI in Iran. Thus, by definition, they have a well-founded fear of persecution if they were to be returned to Iran on political grounds.
We know that obviously they've been persecuted not only in Iran but also in Iraq. UNHCR has at its disposal, in extraordinary circumstances...and in particular, the criteria suggest that it's when the health and safety of individual asylum seekers is in fact threatened. We know, based on the six attacks in the last five years, that in fact their lives are seriously threatened—four attacks just this past year at Camp Liberty, and the attack at Camp Ashraf and otherwise. So those basic criteria have been met for doing a group determination.
Unfortunately, my assessment is that UNHCR has strayed, very regrettably, from its humanitarian mission. Its mission should be narrowly focused on assessing whether or not these people have claims for asylum that are valid and ultimately issuing a decision as to whether or not they should be refugees in accordance with international law.
Unfortunately, the politics in Iraq and the broader set of issues that UNAMI, the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, has with the Government of Iraq have meant that UNHCR seems to have subsumed its activities within the broader UN mission. It seems to me that UNAMI has unfortunately concluded that they have more important issues to deal with than this one and that they don't want to put pressure on Maliki with regard to the situation in Camp Liberty.
I think the international community and donors to UNHCR, including Canada, should be putting pressure on UNHCR to merely do its job—to actually either do a group determination or an individual determination and come to a conclusion as to whether or not these people are refugees. So far they're not willing to do that.