The United States is deporting Iranian Christian convertsback to the Asian country despite the risk of imprisonment and persecution theyface for abandoning Islam.In a BBCreport, several Iranian asylum seekers who converted toChristianity, described how they fled their country in fear, only to end up inUS immigration centres and facing forced returns.One of the deportees identified as Majid (pseudonym) said hespent a year in detention after crossing into the US from Mexico in 2024.Despite presenting evidence of his conversion and thewell-documented risks Iranian converts face, he was forced on a plane “eventhough an immigration judge had already granted him protection from removalfive months ago”. Another asylum seeker identified in the report is the wifeof one Ali, an Iranian Christian convert now residing in the US.“They deported my wife back to Iran even though she is aChristian. Now Iranian intelligence is after her and me,” Ali told the BBC.This comes as US President Donald Trump, and a raft of rightwing American politicians and public commentators, allege persecution ofChristians in Nigeria. Trump had in October, redesignatedNigeria as a “country of particular concern” in response toallegations of a Christian genocide in the African nation.He subsequently asked the United States Department of Warto preparefor “possible action” to wipe out Islamic terrorists targeting“our cherished Christians” in Nigeria.He also said he would order an immediate end to all aid andassistance to Nigeria.According to the report, a White House official said recentdeportations to Iran involved people who either had final removal orders orchose to leave voluntarily. The official added that the government cannot reveal whethera person applied for asylum or had their claim rejected.
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