After being deported from the United States while seeking asylum, a Christian convert who fled persecution in Iran has a new home.

Artemis Ghasemzadeh, 27, recently received asylum through Canada’s refugee resettlement program. She arrived at her new home on Denman Island near Vancouver in July. A Canadian couple sponsored her, allowing her to make the move.

Ghasemzadeh entered the U.S. with her brother, Shahin, in December 2024. The siblings were detained for five days in San Diego and then separated: Ghasemzadeh was deported to Panama with 11 other refugees, and Shahin to a Houston detention facility.

Ghasemzadeh and other Christian asylum seekers stayed at a hotel in Panama City for several months, waiting for a permanent location to become available. International Christian Concern (ICC), nonprofits, government agencies such as the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), and Christians globally followed their case, praying and advocating for them since The New York Times broke their story in February.

Refugees fleeing religious persecution have traditionally been granted asylum on American soil, but they faced more stringent border and refugee laws under the Trump administration. Ghasemzadeh pursued asylum in Canada after lawyers advised her that the United States was unlikely to allow her to return.

Religious freedom organizations criticized Ghasemzadeh’s deportation, alleging that she was denied a “credible fear” interview and access to legal counsel. Iran’s extreme persecution of Christians has been well known for some time.

In May 2025, Ghasemzadeh told ICC she would “rather die” than go back to Iran, knowing the fate that awaits her.

“I have many nightmares now. I don’t have my hometown, I don’t have the USA, and I don’t have a safe country; I don’t know the next step, where should I live … it’s really scary for me,” she said. “It’s a trip where you never come back to your country, and it may be the last time you see all of your family; maybe you can visit your family in the country, maybe not.”

The Iranian believers would face extreme persecution if returned to Iran. ICC sent an emergency petition on Ghasemzadeh’s behalf, signed by 1,302 people, to 10 refugee-friendly Western countries, including Germany, Spain, France, and Italy.

Her case caught the attention of U.S. Rep. (D-Ariz) Yassamin Ansari, an Iranian American, to introduce the Artemis Act, which would prohibit the expedited removal of immigrants residing in countries designated by the State Department as a “country of particular concern.”

Armenian, Assyrian, and Catholic communities exist in Iran. Yet, like other Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East and beyond, Iran has strict anti-conversion laws that are punishable by imprisonment or death. Ghasemzadeh and Christian converts worshipped as part of Iran’s growing underground church community.

“In Iran, being a Christian when you’re born is OK,” Ghasemzadeh told ICC in a previous interview. “There are even beautiful churches. But if you’re a Muslim and you convert to Christianity, it’s a problem. The police want to catch you because it’s not good for [the country].”

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