Speaker. I would like to draw your attention today to an extremely important human rights issue which received some press coverage overseas but which also merits our attention. On December 7. plainclothes French police raided the residence in and around Paris of a number of antiKhomeini Iranian refugees who are sympathizers of the Mojahedin Resistance movement in Iran. Several dozen of the refugees were arrested. and some were reportedly roughed up in the process. Overnight. 14 of them were deported against their will to the west African country of Gabon. The French Government says it arrested and expelled the antiKhomeini Iranian exiles for "pressing reasons of national security." Reportedly. however. these people have lived peacefully for years on French soil. They have not caused disturbances. and as I said. most are political refugees. A couple of them are married to French nationals and had enjoyed special residency rights. Among them also are two refugees whose asylum had been granted originally by Britain and Sweden. It has been said that the deportation of these individuals is part of a complicated secret agreement worked out with the Ayatollah Khomeinis government. In the first step. two French hostages. kindnaped by proIranian terrorists in Lebanon. were freed on November 27. Two days later. an unaccredited Iranian diplomat suspected of masterminding a series of bloody bombings in Paris in 1986. and wanted by French police. was allowed to leave the country.
Keywords matched
deported deportation refugees