"Hundreds of thousands of Iranians are living in Canada who, because of Ottawa's politicized position, are deprived not only of their consular rights, but also of their obvious right of determining their own destiny through elections”, tweeted the HCHR, criticizing the violation of the rights of Iranians living in Canada.
“The Government of Canada must unconditionally facilitate the easy participation of Iranians living in Canada in the presidential election”, it added, as reported by the information base of the HCHR.
According to statistics, there are about 400,000 Iranians living in Canada who have not renounced their citizenship and, in addition to their new Canadian identity, hold Iranian passports and identity cards, and travel to their homeland for reasonable and legitimate purposes.
Among the affairs of any person residing in another country is consular affairs, including receiving and exchanging passports, identity cards and national cards; document affairs such as power of attorney, participating in elections and participating in determining the fate of the main homeland, exchanging administrative and official letters and many other cases.
But the government of Canada is barring Iranians living in the country from receiving these services and, despite Iran’s protests, is refusing to reopen the Islamic Republic's consulate.
Iranians living in this country have to incur exorbitant costs to do their consular affairs and to travel to Iran or to other countries to do such things.