Seven children are thought missing during a recent police raid on an immigrant neighborhood in south of the Capital, yet no government official has taken action to locate them. One of the children Shahnavaz, 11, who was older than the others could find his way back home, but there is no information on the other six.
The children were missing on August 1, after police raided to the immigrant neighborhood of “Ghouch Hesar” in south of Tehran, destroying several shacks with loaders, according to local reports.
Immigrants say the police destroyed their shacks without prior notice, while the police say it had already informed the residents about the destruction of the slums.
Officials have denied the children were missing, but social aid workers posted a video online, in which fathers of the missing children, made heart-wrenching pleas for their safe return.
A desperate father said:”My daughter in missing, they attacked us at 4 am, we were scared and ran off, my child is missing for a few days now and I am displaced. I cannot call the police because I would be arrested. We have been living here for 30 years. We came here in 1990. They did not give us any warning to leave. They just attacked us at 4 am.”
The other one said: “My son’s name is Mohsen, he has gone missing since that day. I had doubts that he is with my wife, but he is not. My nephews, Isa and Mousa are missing either. We were sleeping when they attacked and pulled gun on us on Wednesday. We escaped. They destroyed our home. Since 69 we have been living in Iran. No one has warned us so far. If they warned us to go, we would go… ”
The Public Relations Director of the Shahre Rey Governorate denyed the missing children stating, “No child was lost on that day and no organization confirmed the loss of these children.”
