The Albania’s offer of asylum to 210 members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq organization (MEK, a.k.a. MKO and PMOI) residing temporarily in Camp Liberty near International Baghdad Airport was met with the hasty rebuff by the terrorist group, which minds about the dismantling and weakening of its structure. |
According to a report by Habilian Association, MKO’s spokesperson in Paris told Associated Press on Saturday that his group “could not accept an offer of asylum for only a small portion of the group.”
He said there are only two options regarding the MKO members held in Iraq: “The first option is the immediate, even temporary transfer of all the residents to the U.S. or to a European country and permanent resettlement from there. And the second option is “the return of all of the residents to Camp Ashraf and the continuation of resettlement process from Ashraf, including transfer to Albania from Ashraf.”
On December 25, 2010, an agreement signed by Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) Martin Kobler and National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of Iraq, Faleh Fayad.
The agreement established that the Iraqi government will relocate the residents of Camp Ashraf to a temporary transit location where the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will start a process of refugee status determination, a necessary first step for their expulsion outside Iraq.
Following the MOU Iraqi government paved the way for the relocation of MEK members to Camp Liberty. Accordingly, nearly all members of the group left their long held paramilitary headquarters and moved to Camp Liberty, waiting for the UNHCR to determine the refugee status and find host countries for their resettlement.