Times of Israel Persian blogger faces deportation from Turkey, fears being sent back to Iran

Neda Amin, 32, who has written regularly from Turkey for The Times of Israel’s Persian website, appeals for a country to step in and give her safe refuge

By ToI Staff 1 August 2017, 1:20 pm Edit

Neda Amin (Courtesy)

The Times of Israel is acutely concerned for the well-being of Neda Amin, a Turkey-based, Iranian-born blogger for The Times of Israel’s Persian website, who is being threatened with imminent deportation by Turkey.

Amin has appealed to the United Nations in Turkey to protect her, noting that the UN previously designated her a refugee in 2015, and has also appealed to human rights organizations and others to intervene on her behalf, asking that a country be found where she can be given safe refuge.

Amin fears that if no other country takes her in, she will be sent back to Iran, where she fears for her fate.

She is now battling the deportation threat via the Turkish courts.

The UN Watch NGO is circulating a petition on Amin’s behalf, warning that she “is in grave danger should she be deported back to Iran.”

Amin, 32, left Iran for Turkey in 2014. She has blogged regularly, and also done freelance work, for The Times of Israel’s Persian site in the past two years.