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Flight from Torture, Part One
By Russell Joslin
Shahin Portofeh sewed up his eyes and lips in 2003 An asylum seeker who was deported to Iran in 2004 has been describing how he managed to escape from custody and make his way back to the UK.
In this three-part series, the BBC News Website follows Shahin Portofeh's story, from deportation and alleged torture in Iran, to his escape and flight to the UK in an arduous and dangerous journey across Turkey, Greece and Italy.
Shahin Portofeh was so scared at the prospect of being deported from Coventry back to Iran that he sewed up his eyes and lips in July 2003 in an effort to draw attention to his case. Having had a gay relationship, Mr Portofeh, now 27, knew he faced the prospect of being repeatedly lashed and then executed if he was returned to his homeland, where homosexuality is illegal. But the Home Office decided to deport him, sending him back to Tehran in 2004. Mr Portofeh described his terror on the day he thought might be his last as a free man. "They kicked my bedroom door in and just threw themselves on me - I was really, really frightened. "Just a few minutes later an immigration officer walked into the room and said: 'We're going to deport you to Iran.' "I was begging them, asking them: 'Please don't deport me' but straight away they took me to the airport and the very same day they deported me back to Tehran." Mr Portofeh said that the ill treatment began as soon as he touched down. "When I arrived there straight away they put me in the airport detention centre and they kept me there two days.
Sixty lashes "It was really, really cold without any glass in the windows. It was snowing - I was really cold - I only had my T-shirt on and they kept me two days there without any food. "My profile was handed to the NSA - the National Security Agency. "They tortured me, beat me up, asked me what I was doing in England, who was supporting me, whose idea was it to stitch up my face and lips and be against the Iranian government. "They didn't show me any mercy... kicking me, punching me and sometimes using their batons to beat me up. "They just beat me up and made ready my case to the court. "The judge sentenced me to 60 lashes and the same day they lashed me - that was really painful. "I was begging them for some treatment, asking them for some medicine, some painkillers, but they didn't show any mercy. "He (a guard) just pulled up my T-shirt and stubbed his cigarette on me."
Prison escape Mr Portofeh explained how he bribed a fellow prisoner to make a key for him while he was awaiting his next court hearing, where he faced the prospect of a death sentence. He said he smuggled the key into the court under his tongue. "They left me on a metal bench and handcuffed me to the bench. "I was really frightened even to do this... it was the only way to save my life. "I unlocked both the shackles and the handcuffs but I let them stay on my arms so it looked like they were locked and put the shackles under the bench. "I was so lucky I hadn't any prison uniform on. A crowd of people were at the court. It was really busy. I got outside. "Fifty yards away I found my brothers had parked the car by the road. I jumped in the car and straight away just drove away." The Home Office said it did not comment on individual cases. Mr Portofeh eventually returned to the UK in 2005 and settled in Manchester. He has since been given leave to remain for five years.
In part two of Mr Portofeh's story, he recounts how he fled Iran across the mountains to Turkey, eventually making his way to Greece where he was placed in detention once more.
Flight from Torture, Part Two
By Russell Joslin
An asylum seeker who was deported to Iran in 2004 has been describing how he managed to escape from custody and make his way back to the UK. In part two of this three-part series, the BBC News Website takes up Shahin Portofeh's story from the point he escaped custody in Iran. "Ten times the National Security Agency people raided my mum's house searching for me. "They showed a letter (to my mother). "They'd got an order from the judge that if I didn't hand myself to the government, they... are allowed to shoot me." Mr Portofeh said he escaped over the Turkish border, along with several other people who were being helped by agents who specialise in people smuggling. Out of Iran but still in danger of being caught by the Turkish authorities and returned to Tehran, Mr Portofeh then made his way to the coast. He then rowed 10 miles out to sea under cover of darkness to a Greek island and, he hoped, safety. Coastguard stand-off "I was about 200 hundred yards away when I was captured by the Greek coastguard," he said. "I'm trying to save my life but the Greeks don't want me and kick me back to Turkey (Turkish waters). "(Later) the Turkish coastguard arrived, so they drop me right in the middle of the sea five miles from Turkey, five miles from Greece. "I am wondering: 'What is going to happen now?' And I am stuck in the middle thinking: "What is happening here?" "I see a big gun, pulled out on the Turkish boat and (it looks like) they are preparing to fight or something - nothing to do with me. "Then - three minutes later - a speedboat, an armed military one from the Greek side, appeared in between us and scared the Turkish boat away. "The Greek coastguard got me and they started swearing at me and beating me up. "They took me back to the Greek Island and tell me I will be detained for three months because I had illegally entered Greek waters and then after three months (they say) I will be deported to Turkey." Now held in a detention centre on a Greek island, Mr Portofeh plotted his escape. Crucial to his plans was making a copy of the key to the padlock on the main gates of the warehouse where he and 200 more detainees were confined. Baguette impression Then he says he had a stroke of luck, finding a box of tools left unguarded by workmen. "Some people got the screwdriver, I got the file. "Some people got different pliers and other things stored away, hidden under the mattress of the bed. "I just got the file and thought it might be useful because all the time I as thinking and planning to escape "It was a big warehouse and many people, 250 people, live in there and daily they opened it twice to feed everybody." He said at one mealtime, he managed to briefly get hold of the padlock key which the guards had left in the lock while the detainees ate. Mr Portofeh said he used this window of opportunity to make an impression of the key. French journalist "They'd given us a baguette bread. Inside it was very doughy, spongy and quite soft. "I removed the key and pressed onto the dough to get the print of the key." "And I find a piece of aluminium by the window, removed it and start to file and I had it (a copy of the padlock key) finished in three or four hours. "I wasn't sure it was going to work but I put it in the padlock and it worked." However, Mr Portofeh said the security guards spotted him trying to escape and beat him up again, before returning him to custody. "They put me back in again to the same detention centre (it meant) I could get my file back again. "When I got it I removed the bars to the window of the cell - it was around noon - the perfect time to get away, they were not going to notice anything. "I just picked them (the bars) off the window and jump on the other side, outside the detention centre and I just ran away." A fugitive on a small Greek island, Mr Portofeh had another stroke of luck. Almost immediately after fleeing he ran into a French journalist who had interviewed him while he was inside the detention centre. He says she gave him money and helped him get a ticket on a ferry to mainland Greece. Mr Portofeh eventually returned to the UK in 2005 and settled in Manchester. He has been given leave to remain for five years. The next leg of Mr Portofeh's journey back to the UK - to be published on Friday - was as a stowaway. He picks up his story as he hides himself underneath a lorry in a car park at a Greek port.
Flight from Torture, Part Three
By Russell Joslin
An asylum seeker who was deported to Iran in 2004 has been describing how he managed to escape from custody and make his way back to the UK. In the last of this three-part series, BBC News takes up Shahin Portofeh's story as he hides himself underneath a lorry in a car park at a Greek port. "Any cars parked in that car park means they are going to Italy. So when I got myself into the car park I hid myself under the axle [of a lorry] in a metal box used for storing equipment. "The box was tiny - it felt like I was inside a coffin. "After a few seconds I find [the lorry] has gone inside the ferry, it's gone on board. "I was waiting, waiting, just to see what is going to happen. It was really cold and painful laying down, not moving, not making any noise, sounds in case any ferry staff see or hear me. "The lorry drove off the ferry but I cannot get out (of the box) unless it is parked. "I wait for everything to settle down then I get out of the box and I find by the signs and writing that I am in Italy." No ticket In Italy, penniless and starving, Shahin, starts sneaking on board trains in his quest to reach the UK. "No money - nothing at all. I can't buy a ticket. "I went to the train station to see if there are any trains to Rome. "So I got on a train - when I saw the ticket conductor coming I hide myself inside the toilets so he won't see me. "But sometimes I got caught without a ticket and they kicked me out of the train. "I was going to France but when I got the train by the border between France and Italy by the checkpoint, [the police] got me. "When I was captured they took my fingerprints there they gave me a piece of paper, which says I have to leave Italy as soon as possible. "And I say: 'I am an asylum seeker, I was in England' and tell them the whole of my story. "They tell me: 'You can't apply in this country you have to go back to England or your own country.' "They told me to wait... for another train and go back to Milan. "They left me in the train station - and I walked out. "I found a minibus that took people from the villages of Italy to the villages of France. "That cost 15 euros. But I had absolutely no money so I begged other people, telling that I had nothing, had lost everything. "I know it sounds awful but I had to do this to get some money. "When I got that minibus it went from village to village - there was no checks of passports or anything like that. "When I got to the French side I went to a train station and did the same thing again - got on board without a ticket and eventually I arrived in Paris. "I slept on the streets for two days. I had no food, nothing just begging people - it was the only way I could survive. "During that time I keep trying to get on a train but they catch and forced me outside time and again, but eventually I did manage to sneak on a train. "I hid in the toilet and I got to Calais, which is on the coast facing Dover." Apparently impossible to steal on board a ferry to England from Calais, Mr Portofeh found a way fraught with danger. "The only chance to get into the UK was the port where the ferries go from but there it is impossible to get into the car park. "There is a big high fence, dogs, security, everything - there isn't anyway to get inside the port from there but on the other side of the port there is a big park. "I thought I could swim from the park into the portside - there isn't any security, they don't check that side of the port. "I think they didn't realise someone could swim into the port. "Around midnight in absolute dark... I remove all my clothes, put them inside a few bins bags to waterproof them so they do not get wet and I jump into the sea to swim inside the port. "That was really highly risky because at any time a ferry might come, moving away or arriving in the port. "It took me 50 minutes to swim the distance. "When I got to the other side I easily got into the car park I see the ferry doors are open so I just jumped inside and hide myself. "The ferry was loading up with lorries and cars and then the ferry moved. "I jumped down from my hiding place and looking through gaps on the ferry door can see that France is moving away - I was really happy. Kissed ground "I found a coach and opened the hatch underneath where the suitcases and luggage are stored. "After two hours, something like that, we got to the England side and the coaches drives off. "I don't know where it is going to - after an hour and a half the coach stopped. "I can hear people's feet walking inside the coach. I know that means it's parked at services and people are getting off. "I was ready if someone opened the door (of the compartment), ready to jump away and run and someone did open the door and I just ran away. "When I was 150 yards away, something like that I just lay on the floor and kissed the ground and say I am absolutely safe now. "There was nothing to worry about any more." Mr Portofeh made a second application for asylum and was granted leave to remain in Britain for five years. He has since settled in Manchester. Defending its decision to deport Mr Portofeh to Iran in 2004, where he was wanted by the authorities for having had a gay relationship, the Border and Immigration Agency issued the following statement. "All asylum application and representations are carefully considered on their individual circumstances taking account of all the evidence available at the time including regularly updating country reports. "We recognise circumstances can change significantly over time such as changes in the situation of the county of origin or an applicants own personal circumstances or the substance and significance of the evidence they put forward. "Such changes may rightly result in different decision being reached at different times."
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