IRANIAN Christians are consistently being refused asylum in Georgia, despite the risk of persecution at home; many are accused of not having a genuine faith because they are not Orthodox, new research says.
A new joint report, The Plight of Iranian Christians Seeking International Protection in Georgia, by the advocacy groups Article 18, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Open Doors, and Middle East Concern, found that fewer than one per cent of the more than 1000 Iranians who have claimed asylum have been granted it.
The most common destination for Iranians seeking asylum is Turkey, but increasingly restrictive conditions there have driven more Iranians to Georgia, where 85 per cent of the population is Orthodox. Last year, more than one in five asylum-seekers in Georgia were Iranian: 204 out of 1052. Ninety per cent of these were applying for asylum based on their conversion to Christianity.
Conversion from Islam to Christianity in Iran is illegal, and converts can be caught and imprisoned. Anyone deemed to be “proselytising”, or seeking to convert Muslims, can face the death penalty.
Iran has a tiny traditional Christian community of Assyrian Christians and Armenian Christians who are tolerated. They number only about 125,000. There are, however, thought to be up to one million Christian converts, according to figures from Article18 in 2022. Many of these are Evangelical Protestants.
The report says that one of the reasons for refusal of asylum claims in Georgia is “Intolerance of expressions of Christianity other than Georgian Orthodox”. The Georgian Dream party, which was re-elected in parliamentary elections in October, is considering making Orthodoxy the state religion.
One unnamed asylum lawyer interviewed for the report said: “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.”
An Iranian asylum-seeker, Pastor Reza Fazeli, whose church is Baptist, said that Georgians “don’t have enough information about other branches of Christianity, and think that if we don’t believe in their calendar, saints days, and rules, then we are the same as Jehovah’s Witnesses”.
Pastor Fazeli’s Christian faith was recognised by officials, but his case for asylum was nevertheless refused. A letter from the authorities told him that he did not have a “well founded fear of persecution” on return to Iran.
“It should be noted that in relation to the general situation in [Iran] in terms of security,” the letter stated, “based on the joint analysis of your statement and the information sought by the Ministry about the country of origin, we consider that there are no expected problems in terms of security in your country of origin.”
Iranians in Georgia told the report’s authors that they were losing hope of gaining asylum in Georgia. A lack of financial support and few jobs has also led to many facing financial difficulties.
Steve Dew-Jones, from Article18, said that some had returned to Iran, despite fears of violence and persecution, because they felt they had no other choice. “If Iranian Christians aren’t able to stay in Georgia, and nobody else wants them, what can they do?”
Georgia is a member of the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance (IRFBA), and has expressed its commitment to Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to protect religious minorities and protect freedom of religion and belief.
The report urges Georgia to ensure that its immigration authorities recognise that Iranian Christians are at risk of persecution; that they understand that the Christian faith is not restricted to the Orthodox Church and its traditions; and that they follow UN assessments on the plight of Christians in Iran.
Other members of IRFBA are urged to make urgent representations to Georgia on the plight of Iranian Christian asylum-seekers. The report will be presented to IFRBA.