The United States is deporting Iranian Christian converts
back to the Asian country despite the risk of imprisonment and persecution they
face for abandoning Islam.

In a BBC
report, several Iranian asylum seekers who converted to
Christianity, described how they fled their country in fear, only to end up in
US immigration centres and facing forced returns.

One of the deportees identified as Majid (pseudonym) said he
spent a year in detention after crossing into the US from Mexico in 2024.

Despite presenting evidence of his conversion and the
well-documented risks Iranian converts face, he was forced on a plane “even
though an immigration judge had already granted him protection from removal
five months ago”.

Another asylum seeker identified in the report is the wife
of one Ali, an Iranian Christian convert now residing in the US.

“They deported my wife back to Iran even though she is a
Christian. Now Iranian intelligence is after her and me,” Ali told the BBC.

This comes as US President Donald Trump, and a raft of right
wing American politicians and public commentators, allege persecution of
Christians in Nigeria.

Trump had in October, redesignated
Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” in response to
allegations of a Christian genocide in the African nation.

He subsequently asked the United States Department of War
to prepare
for “possible action” to wipe out Islamic terrorists targeting
“our cherished Christians” in Nigeria.

He also said he would order an immediate end to all aid and
assistance to Nigeria.

According to the report, a White House official said recent
deportations to Iran involved people who either had final removal orders or
chose to leave voluntarily.

The official added that the government cannot reveal whether
a person applied for asylum or had their claim rejected.

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