PRESS RELEASE
2 June 2010
Iraqi refugees given tickets
for deportation flight to Baghdad for Wednesday
9th June
More than 100 Iraqis have
been detained in London detention centres, some
of whom have been given removal directions to
Iraq by the UK Border Agency for Wednesday 9th
June at 5.00am.
‘Ali', who was arrested and
detained in Colnbrook last week says:
'Why have they arrested me
again? I've been living here and I have a child
here. Baghdad's not safe for anyone and
especially not for me as I'm Kurdish. I don't
even speak Arabic.'
After the last flight to
Baghdad in October, when ten people were
deported to Baghdad and the thirty-three others
on the plane were sent back by the Iraqi
authorities, an Iraqi Government spokesman said
the Iraqi Government was against the UK
government forcing people back to the country,
but detainees in Colnbrook were interviewed
yesterday by Iraqi men they were told were from
the Iraqi Embassy. However the Iraqi Embassy has
told the International Federation of Iraqi
Refugees they do not know anything about it.
Today the same people visited Brook house near
Gatwick airport.
Arevan Mohammed, from Kirkuk,
told the International Federation of Iraqi
Refugees he had been threatened by
‘On Wednesday 2nd June I had
an interview in Brook House IRC at 11:20
approximately. The immigration officer called
Martin Smith from UKBA told me that I was not
allowed to bring my legal representative with me
as this meeting was totally private. After a
few minutes talking with him he allowed me to
make a contact with my solicitor to tell him
about this interview. However I went to see the
Iraqi officials.
They came to interview me.
They spoke to me in Arabic but I started
speaking in English as I told them we were
living in UK and every one speaks English here.
If you can’t then your interpreter should
interpret to you. I asked them, ‘who are you?
...They said they were from the Iraqi embassy.
I told them that before I came to this interview
I called the Iraqi Embassy and they informed me
that they were not in Brook House for
interviews. Then I asked them again, ‘please
tell me who are you?’ They replied they had come
from Iraq working with UKBA as ambassadors for
them. He asked me, ‘what is your name’? I said
my name is Arevan Mohammed but I want to see
your ID to prove what you are saying. He said
where do you live? Do you think we came from
street to interview you? I said I am from
Kirkuk and that there are many people who were
from the street and who are now in the new Iraqi
Government. He became so angry and shouted at
me with a loud voice saying "go out and see what
I’m going to do with you and where I’ll put you
by the time you come back’
He terminated the interview
and asked for security to arrest me and take me
out but UKBA has not make any arrest order on me
so they have released me straight away. I have
contacted my solicitors and Iraqi embassy in
London about the threat that I am facing now. I
am really worried and fear for my life now.
Even in the UK I don’t feel secure any more.’
Dashty Jamal from the
International Federation of Iraqi Refugees says:
‘This is another tactic by
the UK Government and the Iraqi government to
legitimise their deportation police. The
Liberal Democrats promised to sort out the
problem of refugees but now they are supporting
this inhuman policy and are working with the
tribal, religious and nationalist militia groups
in Iraqi to play with lives of innocent people
who tried to escape from the killings,
massacres, sectarian violence and war but are
now threatened with forcible deportation.
The.UK government must stop this policy. If the
UK Government wants to stop people fleeing from
Iraq then they need to support a form of Iraqi
government that is secular and can guarantee
equal citizen rights for all regardless of their
nationality and religion, not one which is based
on sectarianism.
There is a demonstration
against deportations this Saturday at 2pm
outside Parliament. Groups attending include
International Federation of Iraqi Refugees,
Kurdish and Turkish Community Centre, Kurdistan
National Congress, International Organisation of
Iranian Refugees (No Border), Coalition to Stop
Deportations to Iraq, London Coalition Against
Poverty, Campaign Against Immigration Controls,
Cameroon Support Network, South Asia Solidarity
Group
(Ends)
Contact: 07856032991, 07824
996724
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Notes for editors
1. The International
Federation of Iraqi Refugees campaigns for the
rights of Iraqi refugees and against forcible
deportations and detention. The Coalition to
Stop Deportations to Iraq campaigns against the
forcible deportation and detention of Iraqi
refugees.
2. The flight will be the
first to Iraq since the 14th October, when ten
people were deported to Baghdad and the
thirty-three others on the plane were sent back
by the Iraqi authorities.
See www.csdiraq.com for more
information
3. At least four million
Iraqis have been forced to flee either to
another part of Iraq or abroad since the war
began in 2003
4. According to Home Office
figures, 632 people were forcibly deported to
the KRG region in the north between 2005 and
2008. The International Federation of Iraqi
Refugees estimates that the figure, with the
monthly charter flights deporting 50 people at a
time since the beginning of 2009, currently
stands at approximately 900.
