A letter from Sadegh Sepehri in Germany
September 9, 2003
Iranians dispersed in Greece
After a time of effort and planning, Parviz and his wife Shahla and their two children succeeded in buying a visa for Greece, a member of the European Union, in order to flee from Iran. But instead, the flight took them to Germany instead of Greece. When they entered Germany they requested asylum from the federal authorities and were sent to a special camp for refugees. According to the asylum laws of Europe, everyone must present themselves to the first secure country they enter or to the country that issued their visas. Therefore, after a time, perhaps one year, the federal authorities noticed that this family had entered Germany with a Greek visa. Then the police arrested them in order to send them to Greece. It should be noted that Greece has absolutely no appropriate conditions for granting asylum. They were put in detention in Germany until the preparations for their flight were ready. Their young daughter was very frightened and regularly cried and had fits. So the police sent the mother and two children to a house to stay. They were told to report to the police the next morning, but the next day the mother went with her two children to the house of a friend and hid. The next day Parviz was sent to Greece and, after being put in detention at the airport in Athens for several days while his papers were processed, he was sent to a detention camp on a far island. There were not even basic living facilities at the camp, and Parviz stayed there in a very bad emotional state, upset about the condition of his wife and children.
Shahla, who had no money and no place to stay, wandered about until a group of charitable Germans who lived together as a group took her to their house and sheltered her. There Shahla learned that there was an Iranian church in Berlin that perhaps could guide and help her. She went to the church and told her story. It was a very lamentable tale. She also told how her husband had contracted a skin disease in the detention camp in Greece due to lack of sanitary conditions.
After prayer and discussion, we contacted friends who serve in Athens, told them about the situation of Parviz, and asked for their help. They immediately got in touch with Parviz and brought him to Athens and put him in a small apartment for refugees. In that three-room house twelve Iranian refugees were living. They were only allowed to sleep there at night and during the day must go out and look for work (which is, of course very hard to find).
Shahla went repeatedly to the church and, hearing the word of God, gained hope and a degree of peace. She went to special classes for inquirers for baptism. In the end, she gave her heart to Jesus Christ and was baptized along with her little daughter. We then decided to go to Athens to see if we could help the asylum seekers. We would also try to find a way to help the family of Parviz and Shahla. We arrived in Athens on March 4, 2003. Hearing the sad stories there, we were moved many times to tears. The international team with which we work is doing a good and valuable service there. Most of the asylum seekers in Athens sleep at night in parks and have no bathing or toilet facilities. By going to the international team’s center they are able to go in turns to use the shower and toilet. The team also distributes food to the asylum seekers. Three times a week they feed between 700 to 1000 people. The meals consist of bread, two boiled eggs, and an orange. Most of the participants are Kurds, Afghanis, and Iranians. While they were eating, we preached the word of God and gave hope to them through the grace and love of God in Jesus Christ. The sermon was in Persian and a brother there translated it into Kurdish.
After the preaching of the word of God there was opportunity for them to ask us questions in another room. In several separate meetings for Iranians, about 50 attended, and all of them listened with great interest to the word of God. A number of them gave their hearts to Christ. After the sermon, there was a time for questions and most of them asked about the laws and their status as refugees and discussed problems related to their difficulties. These were answered with love and empathy. These meetings began at 5:00 p.m.and usually lasted until 10:00 p.m. Each one tried to get the necessary information for his or her future.
In the apartment where twelve young refugees lived was a youth named Hamid who had come to faith in Christ in Turkey. He worked several days a week and earned ten Euros a day. Hamid used these ten Euros to provide food and basic necessities for the other eleven apartment-mates. He took his Bible with him wherever he went and constantly quoted from it. We learned practical lessons from him about the love of Jesus Christ and love for one neighbor. God blessed him.
During the few days we were in Athens we were able to contact the officials of the refugee offices of the United Nations and also of the International Aid Foundation and tell them about the situation of these refugees. We especially tried to find a way for Shahla and her two children to have a place to live with her husband Parviz when she comes to Athens and not have to sleep in parks or the streets. Now Shahla has gone to Athens. We are very concerned about her and especially for her two children. We are also concerned about the hundreds of other refugees there.
Our contact with these persons who had lost hope was very good. It was useful that they could gather around us and ask their questions. They requested that we come again and we promised that we would repeat this work and come there the first part of July.
Aziz Sadeqiani and Rev. Sadeq Sepehri
Iranian Presbyterian Church in Berlin, German
The 2003 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 87
