Iranian Christians who seek a new life in the Caucasus nation of Georgia after fleeing persecution in their homeland face rejection there too, a report says.
A joint report published this month by Article 18, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Open Doors, and Middle East Concern says that Iranian Christians are being refused asylum in the country because they are not Orthodox.
In Iran, converting to Christianity from Islam or owning a Farsi-language Bible is illegal and punishable by imprisonment.
According to the report, 85% of Georgia’s population identify as Orthodox Christian. In this context, the report says, Iranian applications for asylum on the basis of faith are rejected due to ‘intolerance of expressions of Christianity other than Georgian Orthodox.’
‘The Georgian government and Orthodox community hate all things that smell like Western ideals, including Protestant Christianity, which is somehow mixed up in their eyes with the concept of homosexuality and other liberal ideas,’ said an unnamed asylum lawyer who was interviewed for the report.
Georgia is also dismissive of asylum claims due to its relationship with Iran, the report says. Trade between the two countries totalled $270million last year, the report states, and could unofficially amount to a number almost twice as large.
‘So, for the Georgian government, Iran is very important, and if you are a small country and you need to make a good relationship with your big neighbour [Iran], you cannot give that neighbour’s citizens refugee status,’ said an unnamed lawyer quoted in the report.
The report calls on Georgia’s immigration authorities to accept that Christian faith is not limited to the Orthodox Church and that Iranian Christians are threatened by persecution in their home country.
