The Role of Civil Society in the Promotion and
Protection of Tolerance and Non-Discrimination:
Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting III
Towards Tolerance and Non-discrimination and
Addressing Hate Crime for Communities at Risk
26 June 2023 – 27 June 2023
Hofburg, Vienna
CAP/ Liberté de Conscience and Human Rights Without Frontiers are deeply concerned about the situation of over 100 members of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light who have been blocked by the Turkish authorities at the Turkish-Bulgarian border since the end of May.
Ankara has decided to deport them back to their home countries where they would face imprisonment, torture and even execution in the case of Iran.
They were denied entry of the European Union and faced violent treatment by the Turkish authorities, assaulting, kicking, and beating them with batons and firing gunshots in the air. Afterwards, they were transferred to the Edirne detention center where they still are.
The Ahmadi Religion minority has been subjected to harsh persecution in numerous Muslim- majority countries such as Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Malaysia, and Turkey because they are considered heretics.
CAP/ Conscience et Liberté and Human Rights Without Frontiers urge Turkey to immediately annul all deportation orders and to grant them asylum in a safer land outside Turkey.
