10th December 2008

Press Release:

Fifty Iraqis being deported today

TheInternational Federation of Iraqi Refugees has been informed that fifty Iraqisare currently being moved from Doverand Colnbrook detention centres to be sent back to Iraqi Kurdistan by charterflight today. 

Two of thepeople being deported, Ahmed Ali (held in Dover) and Jabar Aziz Ahmed (Colnbrook),informed us that they are being taken in vans from the detention centres toStanstead to be removed tonight.

All thepeople we are in contact with (the majority of deportees) fled Iraq due topolitical or social persecution.  Kurdistan,in northern Iraq,has been classified as safe by the Home Office and so acceptable to send peopleback to.  Recent deportees have committedsuicide, been kidnapped and killed in a car bomb. 

Jabar Aziz Ahmed left to fleepolitical persecution.  He returned in2006 but was forced to flee again after being tortured.  The Medical Foundation has confirmed that hehas been tortured and testified to this in court.  In spite of this he has been held in Orpingtondetention centre for a year. 

He says:

‘If I go back I’ll be tortured againand my life will be in danger.  I havemade a life here and campaigned for the human rights of other Iraqi refugees inthe UK.  I’ve tried to appeal my case again but Ican’t afford the fees my solicitors charge. I can see the vans coming to take us. My life’s over if I go back.’

Ahmed Ali for example fled to fleedeath threats from his girlfriend’s family, from a different tribe, who objectedto them being together.  She was killedby her family when she became pregnant and he was forced to leave the countryto escape the same fate.  The family arewaiting for him to come back. 

Other people on the flight include asports teacher persecuted and threatened by radical Islamic groups for teachingfemale students sport and a shop owner tortured and threatened for sellingalcohol.

Dashty Jamal from the InternationalFederation of Iraqi Refugees says:  

‘Kurdistan isnot ‘safe’, as the Home Office describes it: human rights and freedoms areviolated on a daily basis, often by the political parties that run thestate.  It is madness that people whofled their persecution are being sent back to the mercy of the very people whowere persecuting them before.  We call onall concerned people to take a stand against the Home Office’s increasinglyinhumane stance and to help us campaign against these deportations which areputting people’s lives at risk.’

(ends)

Dashty Jamal, InternationalFederation of Iraqi Refugees - 07856032991

Richard Whittell, Coalition toStop Deportations to Iraq– 07824996724

ifir@gmx.com                                                  

nodeportationstoiraq@yahoo.co.uk