Following the arrest on March 11, 2022 of long-time labour rights defenders Haleh Safarzadeh and Alireza Saghafi, the IUF wrote to the government of Iran to demand their immediate and unconditional release. After their arrest, the two were immediately taken to Kachuei Prison in Karaj to serve one-year sentences dating from 2019.
Together with our sister global unions, the IUF is co-sponsoring a new LabourStart campaign, and we are calling on all members to support and promote the campaign HERE!
- Safarzadeh, a teacher, and Saghafi, a writer and auto mechanic, work with the Center for Workers’ Rights, informing workers of their fundamental rights and defending victims of repression
- The two were first arrested together with other worker rights advocates on April 26, 2019 in the run-up to planned May Day celebrations across Iran; they were tried and convicted later that year on spurious charges of ‘propaganda against the system’
IUF General Secretary Sue Longley stated, “The campaign to free Haleh Safarzadeh and Alireza Saghafi will only grow until they are freed. The time is now for the government of Iran to release these labour rights defenders.”
