A Portrait Of A Human Rights Tragedy

Nader Kamalfar and her two children have been living in a transit room at the Moscow Airport for about 75 days. She is an escaped political prisoner of the Iranian regime. When they escaped, they were heading for Germany via Russia and were held up. Originally they were allowed a hotel room in Moscow until, without explanation, they were told they had to stay in the public area of the airport without access to showers or baths. Iran has demanded their return and it appears the Russians may eventually comply. At present, it looks like they may be sent back to Iran as early as November 22.

Watch this video and tell me you aren't outraged by this. I'm not particularly surprised by the treatment in Russia; they haven't precisely been a beacon of justice and light throughout history. However, the fact that the United Nations, the supposed guardian of human rights, has rejected her appeal for asylum speaks more to the ineptness and failure of the entire United Nations enterprise than many other scandals they've been involved in. This is what we have the UN for and they don't want anything to do with it.

Several organizations are working to try to secure her asylum status in any country that is willing to take her and her children. It's an international disgrace that it takes this much effort - and that the effort may end up failing - to keep a mother and two children safe.

Article Author: John Bambenek

John Bambenek is a freelance columnist and author. His first technical book is the grep Pocket Reference. He is a digitial forensics expert and owns his own cybercrime consulting firm, Bambenek Consulting.

Visit John Bambenek's author page — John Bambenek's Blog