Milan (AsiaNews) - 2026 is set to become ‘year zero’ for Iranian Christian refugees, and those from other countries where they face persecution, because ‘zero’ is the number who have been admitted by the United States. The American superpower has long represented a safe (and welcoming) haven for those fleeing wars, religiously motivated violence and targeted attacks; however, over the past year, the anti-immigration crackdown imposed by US President Donald Trump has effectively shut down one of the few sources of hope for persecuted Christians. The figure, which confirms the fears following the restrictions imposed by the White House occupant, is contained in two new reports published in recent days by American Christian NGOs.
“It is predicted that [financial year] 2026 will be the first, in at least a quarter of a century and probably in the entire history of the US Refugee Resettlement Programme, in which persecuted religious minorities will be completely excluded,” notes the ‘State of the Golden Door’ report. The fourth edition of the report, jointly compiled by World Relief and Open Doors US, noted that whilst 29,478 refugees from countries where persecution of Christians is most severe were resettled in 2024, this figure fell to 9,916 in 2025. For the current year, the figure has dropped to zero, as the only refugees admitted so far are those from South Africa.
Closed doors
The ban on entry, even for persecuted Christians, does not concern Iran alone, although the Islamic Republic shows particularly worrying figures: according to the 2026 World Watch List, 4,849 Christians were killed for their faith during the reporting period (compared with 4,476 in 2025), whilst more than 224,000 abandoned their homes, went into hiding or fled their countries due to persecution. At the top of the list of countries with the highest numbers are Iran, Myanmar and Nigeria, and where persecution is widespread, the change in refugee policy adopted by Washington risks having significant consequences. World Relief and Open Doors have also found that asylum approval rates in immigration courts for applicants from the 50 countries most closely associated with the persecution of Christians have fallen substantially. The overall approval rate fell to 10 per cent in 2026, compared with 26 per cent in 2025 and 58 per cent in 2023. The data includes applicants from all religious backgrounds, not just Christians, and the most significant changes concern refugees from Iran and China.
However, at a time when Iran appears to be increasingly cut off from the outside world due to war-related blockades and sanctions, the global ban on airlines – including the few that have so far been operating within Iranian territory – which comes into force today, is further exacerbating this isolation. The decision was announced in recent days by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who, in an interview with CNBC, stated that “on 23 September, all Iranian airlines will be shut down worldwide”. The international hubs serving Iranian aircraft, the senior official explained, will be “completely cut off from the US banking system. Foreign operators cannot refuel aircraft, provide landing facilities or sell passenger tickets without risking their access to dollar-denominated settlements”.
Lost hopes
The White House’s decision thus ends up dashing any further hopes of leaving for those who would like to put war, violence and persecution—including that on religious grounds, which has not even spared the prominent Christian leaders—behind them. In this regard, the authors of the joint report state that “the ‘golden door’ for those fleeing religious persecution has effectively been closed”. The study includes the testimony of the Iranian-American pastor Ara Torosian, who arrived in the United States as a refugee in 2010 and whose congregation has seen at least 19 Iranian worshippers detained by US immigration authorities over the past year. Two of them, Marjan and Reza, had already been in the news last year, after a video showed Marjan suffering a panic attack whilst her husband was being taken away by immigration officers.
The report also highlights how over 14,000 Iranian refugees – the vast majority of whom are Christians – remain ‘in limbo’ in Austria, following the closure of a resettlement support centre in the country. In the past, the centre also handled the cases of refugees awaiting resettlement in the United States. There are also fears regarding the possible “refoulement” of refugees back to the countries from which they fled: the study cites the case of Artemis Ghasemzadeh, an Iranian Christian who was deported from the United States to Panama before being resettled in Canada, thanks to the support of a local Christian couple.
“Some agreements have led to the return of people by the third country to the nation from which they had initially fled due to persecution,” the study alleges. “World Relief and Open Doors US firmly believe that sending someone back to a place of persecution – however indirectly – constitutes a serious violation of the principles upon which our nation was founded and is in direct contradiction to our Christian beliefs.”
Finally, the report notes a drastic decline in the acceptance of asylum claims by those already in the country, including Iranians. “Iran has historically recorded very high approval rates for asylum claims before immigration judges,” the report observes, with percentages “above 80 per cent” from 2020 to 2024.
However, over the last two years, this percentage has “fallen to just 38 per cent”. The study concludes by urging Christians to pray for and defend their fellow refugees, “to ensure that those persecuted because of their faith continue to have access to the US Refugee Admissions Programme alongside those persecuted for other reasons recognised under US and international law”.
Threats in prison
The critical nature of the situation facing Christians in Iran is confirmed by a case that has come to light in the last few hours, concerning a convert from Islam and prisoner of conscience who is serving a sentence of over nine years in Evin Prison. Ghazal Marzban, who has just turned 43, has begun a hunger strike to protest against the refusal to allow her to have a Bible in her cell and against the repeated death threats she has received after being accused of apostasy. Local sources speaking on condition of anonymity report that she has been refusing to eat or drink since 19 September, adding that this is the second time in three months she has resorted to this extreme form of protest. As Article18 recalls, in June she undertook an 11-day hunger strike to protest against her sentence of nine years and eight months for “propaganda against the state” and “manifestations and collusion against national security”. Prison authorities are said to have justified the refusal by stating that only Iranians “born into Christian families” – and not converts – have the right to possess a Bible in prison.
A British woman also detained in the prison – presumably Lindsay Foreman, a traveller arrested in January 2025 alongside her husband Craig – is said to have requested a Bible on Ghazal’s behalf, but her request was refused. Furthermore, a judge is reported to have ordered the convert to sign a letter of repentance and record a video in which she renounces her faith; otherwise, she would have been sentenced to death for apostasy. The woman, who previously spent two months in Evin Prison for “propaganda against the regime by chanting slogans”, was returned to prison following a second arrest in January. The convert to Catholicism was subjected to violence in prison in July, sustaining a fracture to her left hand. In August, she finally published a moving letter in which she denounced a “brutal” rape at a detention centre run by the Ministry of Intelligence after being arrested for the first time in May 2023.
