We have previously discussed how the MEK were subjected to great hardship from both the Iranian Regime and their proxies within the Iraqi government during their time at Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty. Now, we will discuss how the MEK was finally moved to relative safety in Europe in 2016.

Relocation
Following the brutal rocket attack on Camp Liberty, which killed 52 MEK members, the group was forced to accept that they would never be safe in Iraq, while the Iranian Regime was pulling the strings.

Thus, over a long four-and-a-half-year resettlement process, almost 2,000 MEK members were relocated to European countries as part of an international effort to save their lives, despite various attempts by the Iranian Regime to discredit the MEK, obstruct their safe passage, and even threaten the MEK and authorities.

Most of the MEK members were sent to Albania, but others were rehomed in Germany, Norway, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Finland, Denmark, Belgium, Italy and Spain. The final group of 280 MEK members left Camp Liberty for Albania on September 9, 2016.

A few days before the final relocation, the National Council of Resistance of Iran commended the efforts of President of the Iranian Resistance Maryam Rajavi, along with many distinguished American, European, and Arab personalities, to relocate the MEK.

Iran Regime’s Response
The Iranian Regime tried every trick in the book to hamper the MEK’s transfer, including faking arrest warrants, providing fake red notices to Interpol, and even trying to arrest officials.

Iran’s elite security unit, the Quds Force, even provided missiles to three of its Iraqi proxy groups- Kata’eb Hezbollah, Asa’eb Ahl Al-Haq, and Harakat al-Nujaba – in order to launch missile attacks on the MEK atCamp Liberty to prevent them from leaving.

Kata’eb Hezbollah planned to carry out an attack on the MEK on August 19, 2016, and stationed a missile-equipped truck near to Camp Liberty, but thankfully the plan was discovered and thwarted by Iraq’s Federal Police.

When those plans did not work, the Regime sent Iraqi intelligence agents to effectively steal the personal belongings of MEK members, including cell phones, laptops, radios, and even electric shavers.

While the Iraqi government was also instructed by the Iranian Regime to prevent the MEK from selling their property in Camp Liberty – a government-approved Iraqi merchant wanted to buy their property for $10.7 million. In the end, only 10% of the property was allowed to be sold and only for a quarter of what it was worth.

Of course, the Iranian Regime opposed the relocation of the MEK. As made abundantly clear by the Regime’s constant attacks on the MEK, which only grew following the Regime’s infiltration of post-Saddam Iraq, they wanted to annihilate the MEK.

The Regime conducted three massacres at Camp Ashraf, five missile attacks at Camp Liberty, two abductions of MEK members, and a fully fledged eight-year siege, which killed 177 residents.

While the MEK is now in Europe, they are still not safe from the Iranian Regime, as evidenced by the Regime’s two terror plots in 2018 against the MEK in Albania and France show.