I wonder to what extent these sorts of refugee claims are self-fulfilling statements: let's say, hypothetically, that a family flees Iran to Canada claiming refugee status, despite the fact that they haven't been persecuted. They're denied citizenship, and forced to return to Iran, at which point the government there becomes suspicious of them based on the fact that they had previously fled Iran and claimed injustice. At this point, Iranian officials throw them in prison or keep them under constant surveillance, making them victims of persecution and valid refugees. I'm not saying that this is what happened here, but it seems like a reasonable explanation and something that could happen frequently, given the nature of our immigration system and of certain totalitarian governments.
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