Amnesty International issued a report on human rights in Iran yesterday, saying that the Iranian authorities arbitrarily arrested over 7,000 dissidents last year, while Reuters reported a number of cases of Iranians who risked their lives in the death squads of the English cavalry, In Europe and flee themselves from the political and economic difficulties and crises in their country.

"The Iranian authorities carried out a shameful crackdown last year, crushing protests and arresting thousands in a wide-ranging opposition campaign, a year after the wave of protests," Amnesty International said in a report on the English version of its website yesterday. Against the poverty, corruption and tyranny that broke out all over the country. "

The Iranian authorities have arbitrarily arrested 7,000 students, journalists, lawyers, environmental activists, workers, trade unionists and human rights defenders. Hundreds have been sentenced to imprisonment or flogging, at least 26 demonstrators have been killed and nine have died because of protests while in suspicious conditions .

Over the past year, the Iranian authorities have sought to stifle any sign of opposition by stepping up their campaign against the right to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, and mass arrests of demonstrators.

Over the past year, particularly during the months of January, July and August, the Iranian authorities dispersed peaceful demonstrations, beat unarmed protesters, used live ammunition, tear gas and water cannons against them. Thousands of people were arrested and arbitrarily detained.

In a related context, the agency monitored «Reuters» a number of cases of Iranians risked their lives in the death of the British cavalry, in order to escape the difficulties and political and economic crises in their country, where they are carrying boats not equipped to Britain to seek asylum there.

One of those who ventured into their lives, Fardeen Gholami, said the smugglers told him that a fishing boat would take him from France to England at midnight, but when he reached the beach he and five other Iranians sought asylum but a rubber boat and no one to sail.

Ghalami said he paid 16,000 euros for human traffickers to take him from Kamiaran in western Iran to Britain, but he knew on the beach near Calais in northern France that he and the others would have to manage their own affairs.

Ghulami, one of hundreds of Iranians risking their lives to cross the English Channel, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, and rubber boats used by refugees are not equipped to cross the canal, especially in the dreary winter weather.

"Sometimes huge ships were going through, and it was terrifying, and we knew that if we collided with them, that would be our end," says Gholami.

"The situation in Iran is worse than in a country at war, especially in the recent period. Because of the nuclear ambitions in the country, the economic situation has deteriorated, and I think there will be a new wave of Iranian refugees for economic reasons."

"The waves were coming from all directions, it was a nightmare, and we were dying to die several times in the four hours it took," said Mohammed Salehi Bakhtiari, 47, who told Reuters in October. "Those four hours were like four months." .

More than 500 migrants, mostly Iranians and some of them children, tried to travel to Britain in rubber boats in 2018. Four-fifths of the attempts took place in the last three months of the year, some of them returned to France.

British Interior Minister Sajid Javed cut off family leave to address the problem, and Britain doubled the number of patrol boats in the canal to four boats, as well as a Navy vessel.

A month after his arrest near the port of Dover, Gholami lives in a hostel in Liverpool, and the government provides him with temporary accommodation, pending a decision on his asylum claim.

"We thought we would die if we did not succeed, and everything would be over," says Babak Haj-Bohr, 40, his roommate who crossed the canal last December.

British media described the Iranian exodus as a final attempt to reach Britain, before it split from the European Union. But all the asylum seekers interviewed by Reuters said separation from the EU was not a factor in their movements, and one of them said he had not heard of it From before.

Gholami, who works as an Iranian teacher, left after arresting his environmental friends and fearing his arrest.

Bakhtiari, who worked as an electrical project manager, spent two years in prison for publishing information on workers' rights in factories, and he fled Iran during his interim release.

Haji Bour, who works as a fireman and electrician, was beaten by police in the street for wearing short trousers.

"I think that the sanctions and the economic situation in Iran and the mixing of religion and politics are the main reasons that drive people to leave the country."

He said he hoped he would eventually be able to move his family to Britain, including his seven-year-old daughter. "She will have no brilliant future in Iran," he said.

Last November, the United States reintroduced all sanctions against Iran, which were lifted in the context of the agreement on the Tehran nuclear issue in 2015, which withdrew from US President Donald Trump in May because of Tehran's support for terrorism and its nuclear activities, Of the 21,000 Iranians who left their country in 2018 to seek asylum in Europe, Turkey, the United States, Canada and Australia. In the third quarter of 2018, the number of Iranian asylum seekers in Britain increased by more than 30% from the previous year. The Ministry of the Interior said that most asylum seekers last year were from Iran.

26

Demonstrators killed in

The protests are nine

Detainees who died in

Suspicious circumstances

Amnesty International.

16

A thousand euros paid

Student asylum

Iranian to the smugglers

Humans to reach

To britain.

500

Most of them immigrants

Iranians and some of them

Of the children tried

Travel to Britain

During 2018.