On July 28, US Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX) introduced a bill in the House of Representatives calling upon the government of Iraq “to compensate the former residents of Camp Ashraf for their assets seized by groups affiliated with the Government of Iraq.”
Camp Ashraf was the relocation site of the Iranian resistance movement Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) until 2009 and was under protection of the US. After the 2,700 MEK were relocated to Albania, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) agreed that the properties in the camp belonging to MEK members would remain in their possession and could be sold by them.
However, the government of Iraq prohibited the MEK members from selling their properties, which were seized by “groups affiliated” with it.
The bill calls on the US government to urge the Iraqi government to compensate the MEK members for their seized properties “in order to finance their living costs and long-term accommodation in their new countries of refuge, particularly in Albania.”
Recently, several US politicians, all belonging to the Republican Party, have visited the MEK in Albania. In nearly all these cases, their visit was not made public by the US Embassy or the Albanian government.
