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Photos: Iranian asylum-seekers sew their mouths shut to protest discrimination

A migrant protests as he waits with others to cross the border from Greece.
A migrant protests as he waits with others to cross the border from Greece.
Image: Reuters/Ognen Teofilovski
By
Loubna Mrie
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After Slovenia declared last week that it would only let asylum seekers of Syrian, Afghan and Iraqi origin across its borders, Macedonia and other nearby countries followed suit. Now dozens of Iranian refugees have been left on the Greek side of the Greece-Macedonian border, reports Reuters, effectively excluded from consideration for asylum. In protest, several began a hunger strike on Monday, Nov. 23, sewing their mouths shut.

On Nov. 24, a spokesman for United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-Moon issued a statement calling for compassion, solidarity and shared responsibility, and noted that profiling asylum seekers by nationality “infringes the human right of all people to seek asylum, irrespective of their nationality, and to have their individual cases heard.”

Stranded Iranian migrants block rail tracks during a protest at the border between Greece and Macedonia.
Stranded Iranian migrants block rail tracks during a protest at the border between Greece and Macedonia.
Image: Reuters/Yannis Behrakis
Stranded Iranian migrant Hamid, 34, an electrical engineer from the Iranian town of Sanandij.
Stranded Iranian migrant Hamid, 34, an electrical engineer from the Iranian town of Sanandij.
Image: Reuters/Yannis Behrakis
A migrant cries as she waits to cross the border from Greece into Macedonia.
A migrant cries as she waits to cross the border from Greece into Macedonia.
Image: Reuters/Ognen Teofilovski
A stranded Iranian migrant has his lips sewn.
A stranded Iranian migrant has his lips sewn.
Image: Reuters/Yannis Behrakis
Stranded Iranian migrants sit on rail tracks.
Stranded Iranian migrants sit on rail tracks.
Image: Reuters/Yannis Behrakis
A migrant with a mouth taped in protest.
A migrant with a mouth taped in protest.
Image: Reuters/Stoyan Nenov
A Iranian man who was self-inflicted with a razor, shouts during a protest.
A Iranian man who was self-inflicted with a razor, shouts during a protest.
Image: AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos
An Iranian migrant, 2nd right, with his mouth sewn.
An Iranian migrant, 2nd right, with his mouth sewn.
Image: AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos
A stranded Pakistani migrant sits on a structure by the Greek-Macedonian border.
A stranded Pakistani migrant sits on a structure by the Greek-Macedonian border.
Image: Reuters/Yannis Behrakis