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IRQR Meets with Canadian Members of Parliaments (February 17, 09)
Arsham Parsi, the IRanian Queer Railroad's Executive Director, met with Canadian Members of Parliaments on Monday February 9th 2009 in Ottawa.
Mr. Parsi presented an update report on queer human rights violation in Iran and challenging situation faced by Iranian queers and this led to a discussion on a wide range of issues especially Canadian government role and refugee process. During the meetings, Mr. Parsi shared his deep concerns about Iranian asylum seekers who are in limbo situation in Turkey. He presented a joint letter drafted by IRQR to office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Ankara and we are honored that they signed our letter for support. Mr. Parsi also meets resettlement officer of the UNHCR branch in Ottawa and discussed about Iranian queer refugees who referred to Canadian embassy in Ankara for resettlement but their process takes a long time with no action. IRanian Queer Railroad will continue its lobbying with organizations and governments to protect Iranian queers who need safety and support. IRQR is very pleased to be engaged in partnership with the Canadian government so that a greater number of Iranian queer asylum seekers can be supported. Government support, however, is only one of the tracks of the queer railroad between Iran and Canada. The other track consists of the generous financial support of IRQR donors.
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The
meetings with Claude Bachand from Bloc Québécois party, Hon. Dr. Hedy Fry,
Hon. Bob Rae and Mario Silva from Liberal party, Bill Siksay and Libby
Davies from New Democratic party were productive and allowed the IRQR and
Canadian official elected to explore how they could work together to help
queer Iranian asylum seekers who are fleeing their country of origin
because of persecution based on their sexual orientation.