TIRANA, Feb.15 – Albania will accommodate two thousand members of an Iranian opposition group known as Mujahedin e Khalq (MEK) as part of United States efforts to find them new homes outside of Iraq, where they are currently stationed at a U.S-backed camp.
While U.S Secretary of State John Kerry did not publicly talk about plans to move the mujahedeen to Albania due to the sensitive nature of the issue, an unnamed senior State Department official told Voice of America that Albania has agreed to take in an additional 2,000 members of the dissident group, who has supported the U.S in military operations in the Middle East and in its fight against terrorism.
In the last two years, Albania has taken in about 1,000 MEK members and the agreement to relocate the remaining Iranian exiles to Albania would finally solve the problem of finding shelter for the mujahedeen, whose total number is close to that figure.
The resettlement of the mujahedeen enjoys the backing of both political camps in Albania and it has never been a matter of political debate. The previous right-wing government agreed to take 210 mujahedeen, while the current government seems to have given the green light for resettling the remaining MEK members from their camp in Iraq.
The U.S. government has donated $20 million to help Albania create the necessary infrastructure for housing the refugees, a status which has been recognized for the group by United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR.
News of the relocation of the Iranian dissident group didn’t sit well with Teheran’s regime whose state radio in its Albanian language service claimed that “Kerry is bringing terrorists to Albania” and that “the organization is trying to build its terrorist nest in the country” .
The mujahedeen that have arrived in Albania so far have been accommodated at the National Reception Center for Asylum- Seekers in Tirana’s outskirts, while the Interior Ministry has been reserved in providing numbers or details regarding the group’s accommodation. The mujahedeen are initially registered as asylum seekers while their documents are processed and the right to permanent residency is finally granted.
Mujahedin e Khalq members are considered as opponents of Iran’s regime. Following the Islamic revolution of 1979, MEK supported Saddam Hussein in the 80’s war between Iraq and Iran.
The group had been on the list of terrorist organizations for several years by the United States until it was finally removed from the list in 2012.
