Tehran condemns ‘harassment’ of Iranians at US borders

Tehran – Iran, 25th January 2020  (GNP) :  Canadian news agency CBC revealed that US border officers had been instructed to target and interrogate Iranian-born travelers. It reported of over 200 people of Iranian descent travelling from Canada were detained and questioned for hours at multiple Canada-US border crossings during the weekend of Jan. 4 after the US assassinated a top Iranian military commander.
This followed a reaction from Foreign Ministry spokesman of Iran, Abbas Mousavi on Saturday, denouncing the “unconstitutional and inhuman” treatment of travelers of Iranian descent by US border guards.
“Such highly discriminatory practices against people, purely because of their race, nationality, or religion, are wholly rejected in terms of international human rights laws and practices, and the US government is responsible for them,” Mousavi said. “Given that these people have been questioned by US border guards and security forces about their political views and faiths and their internet accounts broken into, this is a case of inquisition and gross human rights violation,” he added.
According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confiscated their passports and held some of them waiting for as long as 10 hours, refusing to grant them entry to the US. They were asked questions about their family members, birthplaces, schooling and whether they accepted of the US assassination of General Qassem Soleimani.
CBP, on the other hand denies detaining Iranians and blocking them from entering the country based on their heritage, yet US border officers told CBC News that they were in actuality instructed to target and interrogate Iranian-born travelers.
“These actions against Iranians are in line with the US regime’s hostile and spiteful policy towards Iran and Iran’s identity and existence,” Mousavi added. (GNP)