Reykjavík Grapevine - 12.08.2016, Blaðsíða 16

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Interprets With A Purpose
Asylum seeker Morteza Songolzadeh
Morteza Songolzadeh, originally from
Iran, has been living in Iceland for
the past year, and is seeking asylum
here. In this short amount of time, he
has not only made numerous friends;
he also works as a volunteer inter-
preter, and is regularly called upon
by city social services to do this work
for Farsi-speaking immigrants and
asylum seekers. Morteza was forced
to flee Iran because he committed
the offense of apostasy—specifically,
he converted to Christianity, the sen-
tence for which is death. Nonetheless,
both the Directorate of Immigration
(UTL) and the Immigration Appeals
Board have rejected his application for
asylum on the grounds of the Dublin
Regulation (which states that asylum
seekers must make their petition to
the first European nation in which
they set foot after fleeing home).
Morteza’s journey began when he
was in India, doing his PhD in Eng-
lish literature. Although he had never
been particularly taken with Islam, he
was moved by Christianity, and had
himself baptised. Upon returning to
Iran, he began teaching, but received
reprimands from his superiors for not
going to mosque with his students.
Before long, Morteza received word
that someone had tipped off the Basij,
something akin to Iran’s secret police,
about his Christian conversion. Know-
ing what fate awaited him, Morteza
chose to flee the country.
Like the vast majority of asylum
seekers in Iceland, Morteza came here
via other European countries. The
fact that there are no direct flights
from war-torn countries or repres-
sive regimes to Iceland has allowed
UTL to deport well over 90% of those
who apply for asylum here without
even bothering to look at their case file
and see why they are seeking asylum
in the first place. In Morteza’s case,
in order to avoid certain arrest and
execution, he paid a smuggler a sub-
stantial amount of money for a French
visa. Upon learning in France that the
country regularly deports Iranian asy-
lum seekers, and that Christian con-
verts are often targeted for attacks in
asylum seeker shelters, he moved on to
Sweden. There, authorities evoked the
Dublin Regulation and threatened to
send him back to France, from where
he would have been sent to Iran, so
Morteza opted instead to try his luck
in Canada. His luck ran out when his
plane stopped at Keflavík Airport and
he was arrested for travelling with a
false passport. Last August, Reykjanes
District Court sentenced him to fif-
teen days in jail for this offense.
“Breaking the law”
“I’ve told many people that there are
a lot of people just like me, who don’t
have any other choice,” Morteza told
the Grapevine. “Just imagine: people
are risking their lives, getting in a
small boat to cross an ocean to get to a
safe place, using false passports. What
should we do? We know this is danger-
ous, but we have no other choice. Why
are [authorities] putting people in
INTERVIEW
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 12 — 2016
16
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Words
PAUL
FONTAINE
Photo
MORTEZA
SONGOLZADEH
prison for this? I’m not the first one,
and I won’t be the last one.”
During his time in jail, Morteza
says he was encouraged to apply for
asylum in Iceland by the police. While
he was initially hoping to get to Cana-
da, he applied for asylum here and was
released. After staying at first at the
Salvation Army in Reykjavík, he is now
housed in a three-bedroom apartment
owned by UTL, which he shares with a
married couple and another individual.
Because asylum seekers are not al-
lowed by law to work, he was given the
standard stipend: 10,700 ISK per week,
equivalent to just slightly more than
seven days’ worth of groceries. Morte-
za says that with food and other living
expenses, this stipend is usually gone
in three days. The legal proscription
against being able to work, and a pal-
try stipend while waiting month after
month for an answer from UTL, has
been described by many asylum seek-
ers who have spoken with the Grape-
vine as a source of extreme boredom,
anxiety, and feelings of isolation and
depression.
The Interpreter
“The main problem with asylum seek-
ers in Iceland is we don’t have anything
to do,” Morteza said. “How long are we
supposed to sit at home? I know many
asylum seekers. They are educated, or
skilled at a particular craft. Many of
them are young and healthy. Iceland
needs to build up their workforce with
more people from other countries, but
they aren’t letting people who are al-
ready here work. They want to work
and pay their taxes, and not live off the
Icelandic government.”
Morteza was one of the lucky ones,
though, in that he was able to find
something to do: interpreter work.
This he does not only on a freelance
basis, but also for the Department of
Welfare for the City of Reykjavík. He
says he gets on average two to three
calls a week to do interpreter work,
assisting other asylum seekers on the
city’s behalf—work that he is happy to
do, even if he isn’t paid for it.
Despite the fact that city authori-
ties seem pleased enough to call upon
him for his free services, immigration
authorities won’t even examine his
case, nor his reasons for coming here.
A ruling from the Supreme Court on
whether or not he should be granted
asylum is expected some time this
month.
“We don’t come here to take any-
body’s opportunity,” Morteza told us.
“We didn’t come here to destroy their
country. We are an opportunity for
this country. We are talking about
people who are ready and willing to
work. Other countries already know
this. We can help build Iceland, and be
a small part of this society.”