Members of the MEK

How the leaders of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) bypassed the UNHCR since their departure from Iraq
More than ten years have passed since the transfer of the first group of members of the MEK from Iraq to Albania. During this period, a large number of members of the organization have managed to free themselves from its physical and psychological bars and step into the free world. However, more than two thousand members of the organization still live inside a base called Ashraf 3, in northern Albania, near the small village of Manz. There could be various reasons for these people staying in an authoritarian organization with cult-like practices, the most important of which is their identity status.

Ray Torabi, a former member of the MEK, shared some facts about the identity status of residents of the MEK headquarters in Albania on his X social media account. He is a former child soldier of the MEK, and left the organization in 2017 after spending 18 years of his adolescence and youth in the group.

Torabi, who has so far made significant revelations about the violent and cult-like nature of the MEK, writes about the obstruction created by MEK leaders regarding the legal status of its members upon their arrival in Albania.

“The MEK bought many Albanian politicians with a lot of money,” Torabi says. “Also, the initial agreement, according to which all MEK members were transferred to Albania, made it very easy for the authorities to control, imprison, and pressure members.”

He went on to explain the initial agreement between the MEK and the US and Albanian governments to transfer members to Albania:

“That agreement made it very easy for the MEK to control its members because it gave the cult full responsibility for its members. Another important point is the legal status of MEK members in Albania. Members do not have a permanent legal status. A few years ago, the government issued an ID card with a temporary status to each member, but its expiration date has passed and MEK officials did not allow it to be renewed. Therefore, the members’ departure from the camp is not permitted because they do not have valid documents.”

complementing Ray Torabi’s explanations, we can mention the statements of Hamid Atabay, another former member of the MEK. Atabay, who spent 29 years of his life trapped in the MEK’s prisons, spoke about his experiences during his membership inside the group, in a recent interview. In part of his testimonies, he discussed the conditions of the MEK members when they left Iraq and were transferred to Albania.

The former member of the MEK, who was captured by the MEK as a prisoner of war during the Iran-Iraq War in his youth, recalls that in 2013, during the transfer to Albania, MEK officials presented a document to the ranks and, in an emergency, under pressure and trick, coerced them to sign it.

According to this document, each member of the MEK declares that he is fully satisfied with his membership in the group and is determined to remain in it and that he has no request for cooperation in obtaining asylum from international organizations such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

This document was actually submitted by the MEK to HCR. Thus, many MEK members who decided to leave the group after it was relocated in European soil faced a major obstacle resulting from signing that document, according to which the commissioner would not provide them with any assistance in obtaining legal status.

Based on Hamid Atabay’s testimonies, whenever a member of the organization sought legal asylum in Albania, his signature on the aforementioned document was shown to him as a legal obstacle.

Therefore, the individuals who have so far managed to escape the mental and physical bars of the MEK –there are many of them – have been able to overcome countless mental, physical and legal obstacles. Escaping a military and authoritarian cult that has used all its might to preserve its forces is an extremely great and admirable achievement.

Mazda Parsi