31st August 2010

PRESS RELEASE          

Mass deportation flight to Baghdad leaving tomorrow morning

A mass deportation charter flight will leave London early tomorrow morning forcibly deporting more than fifteen Iraqi and Kurdish refugees to Baghdad. Another is planned for the 6th September, deporting more than fifty people.

Herman Osman, who is being held in Oakington detention centre in Cambridge, says:

“I have lived here for ten years in this country. I have no criminal convictions. I have always lived right. I have built a new life here and now they are sending me back to the same situation I ran away from. I ran away from a militia group in Kurdistan and they are sending me back to Baghdad: I don’t have any family there, I don’t even speak Arabic. So what am I meant to do – what is the meaning of democracy and human rights in this country?”

The flight comes as the Home Office has confirmed that the Kurdistan Regional Government is refusing to accept forcible deportation flights into the north of the country, under pressure from a campaign by the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees.

However the Home Office will again deport both Iraqi and Kurdish refugees to Baghdad, with another flight scheduled on the 6th September, in contravention of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees which says the country remains unsafe. The last week has seen a spate of bombings in Iraq. A new government is yet to be formed, six months after the election.

Dashty Jamal, secretary of the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees, says:

“These deportations must be stopped. There is a campaign in Iraq of politicians, writers, journalists and many of the freedom loving in the country that condemns this collusion between the puppet militia running Iraq and the British Government to send back people who were victims of the violence that continues to devastate the country. We call on people in Britain to do the same.

 (Ends)

Contact: 07856032991, 07824996724

ifir@hotmail.co.uk

www.csdiraq.com

www.federationifir.com

-------- Notes for editors

1. The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees campaigns for the rights of Iraqi refugees and against forcible deportations and detention.  It is a member of the Coalitions to Stop Deportations to Iraq (www.csdiraq.com)

2. The UK Home Office has for the first time accepted that the Kurdistan Regional Government will not accept forcible deportations. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/31/kurdish-uk-asylum-seekers-iraq

3. The UNHCR’s statement regarding the last flight to Baghdad can be found here:

http://www.unhcr.org/4c0e33e94fc.html

4. Iraqi refugees continue to suffer from the forcible deportation policy. Kurdish media has reported Rebwar Aziz Mohammed Amin, who was deported on the previous Baghdad deportation flight, as suffering from severe mental illness since returning while Osman Rasul committed suicide in July this year after changes to legal aid meant he lost his legal representation to fight his immigration claim (see http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/01/asylum-seeker-osman-rasul-death-legal-aid)

5  Bombings and violence continue in Iraq. See for example:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11006867

6. The last deportation flight to Baghdad saw allegations of violence and abuse made by deportees against the security guards. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/18/iraq-deportees-asylum-seeker-claims

7. To operate a mass deportation flight, the Home Office contracts a range of private companies. Airlines that are known to have been used include Hamburg International and Czech Airlines. Bus companies to drive people from detention to the airport have included WH Tours and Woodcock coaches. Private security companies used to escort deportees include Group 4 Securicor and SERCO.