Eight long years in refugee limbo

LETTER | My name is Nazafarin Sabouri Miandehi and I am an Iranian refugee in Malaysia. I left Iran in September of 2010 for reasons that are to be found in my UNHCR case which was approved by the UN in 2015.

On Nov 21, 2016, the resettlement centre called me for an interview and they started to process my family for resettlement in the US.

Unfortunately, the UN authorities did not explain to me why on April 23, 2018, the US government did not accept me and my family for resettlement there.

Ever since then, we have received no call and no aid. It's been a year.

The wait is much longer than expected and I can see that the UN does not prioritise the vulnerable and there is no queue system in processing the refugees.

It's simply unexplainable why the wait is so long for me and my family.

I want you to understand and think of the mental and physical effects of living in this state of limbo for eight years now and the toll it takes on me and my children.

I wish to stress, this situation is difficult and it's a form of psychological torture for me.

It's so sad when I think about the future. Time passes and I get older every day.I have another life that I have to start over again.

Dear reader, whoever you are, in your opinion, at what age is building a new life in a completely new environment easy?

I'm sending this letter because I want to appeal my case and to hear the process of my case, whether positive or negative so I and my family can move on.

We're exhausted living in this state of limbo in a country where we are considered aliens, have no right to study or work and have no dignity.

This despite the fact that every single one of us is educated and has years of experience and useful skills in our own line of work.

My only intention behind writing this is to remind that it was World Refugee Day just last month.

So in the spirit of World Refugee Day, I would like to call on all human rights activists, groups and communities to please finalise my case as soon as possible.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.