Group Demands Palestinian Be Granted Asylum

A group calling for asylum seeker policy reform wants a Palestinian asylum seeker who was deported to be allowed to return to Iceland.

RÚV reports that the group, Ekki fleiri brottvísanir (“No more deportations”), handed over a petition of support for Ramez Rassas to the Ministry of the Interior and the Directorate of Immigration.

Rassas originally fled Gaza in 2009, and has been seeking asylum since then. After repeated failures for asylum in Norway, he came to Iceland last November. He was deported back to Norway last February, and then sent back to Gaza the following month. There, he currently resides, in a country which is in the middle of a military assault from Israeli forces.

Benjamín Julian, Rassas’ spokesperson, told reporters there is at least some inconsistency in the way his case is being handled, pointing out that Bobby Fischer was awarded Icelandic citizenship without even being in the country at the time.

“It took parliament two hours to approve that measure,” he said. “I think if the will was there in parliament to give Ramez a passport, they could do that, too.”