HUMAN rights campaigners are walking 200 miles and staging a protest in a show of solidarity with prisoners in Iran. Colwyn Bay Amnesty (CBA) is helping its peers in Cardiff to complete its 2,730-mile effort – the distance from London to Tehran – to raise awareness of the plight of British citizens Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Anoosheh Ashoori and Mehran Raoof, who are being held under spurious charges by the Iranian government. It is among a number of groups in Wales and England that are supporting the Cardiff branch, which have so far tallied more than 1,890 miles during May. The Colwyn Bay branch will also stage a protest on the injustice, coinciding with the 60th anniversary of Amnesty, at Queen’s Gardens on Wednesday, May 24.
A REFUGEE has spoken of his family’s escape from war in Syria and resettlement at their new home in Colwyn Bay. Omer Safer and wife Shirrin fled their home in Aleppo in 2013, two years after the violent campaign by ISIS began in the capital Damascus and would spread to nearby towns and cities. Last month marked 10 years since the multi-sided civil war started with the armed suppression of Arab Spring protestors. An estimated 100,000 people are still living in refugee camps, including Omer’s brother, Awaz, in Northern Iraq. “We moved to Kobani in 2013 but then ISIS came and we had to leave again,” said Omer. “We knew we had to leave Syria permanently because it was not safe.”