 Unite
the Union
128
Theobald’s Road
London
WC1X 8TN
Tel:
020 7611 2614
Mob:
07702 206436
Fax:
020 7611
2822
Email:
Jennie.Formby@unitetheunion.com
9
February 2010
President Massoud Barzani
fuadhussein@gmail.com
Dear President
Barzani,
Re: Deportations to
Iraq
and the KRG
We were encouraged to hear the Iraqi
Government spokesman Ali
al-Dabbagh, telling the Al-Jazeera news network on 17th
October 2009, that, ‘we're
against forcing them [Iraqi refugees] to be deported’,
and Dr Hadi Mahmoud, the Kurdistan Regional Government
spokesman, saying, on 15th December 2009, ‘we
will not accept asylum seekers who have been deported by
force into our airports’, as reported in the Kurdistan
Report.
Together with the refusal by the
Iraqi Government to accept many of those on the
deportation flight to Baghdad from the UK on 15th
October 2009, we welcomed these statements, as they
seemed to indicate that your governments were both
taking a stand against the inhumane policies of the
European Governments that force people from their homes
in Europe, where many of them have lived for many years,
and where they have made lives for themselves with
family, friends and work here.
In addition, according to media
reports and evidence collected by the International
Federation of Iraqi Refugees, many of those who have
been deported are now living in hiding, in fear of the
persecution they originally left Iraq to flee.
Some have been assassinated.
Others, such as Hussein Ali of Suleymania, have
committed suicide only days after being deported.
Others, such as Kadir Salih have been kidnapped
and killed, while others have had mental breakdowns.
Many more have had to leave the country and
become refugees again.
However, we have been dismayed to see
that since these statements, the Kurdistan Regional
Government has accepted at least sixty people deported
from the UK, and the Iraqi Government has accepted 77
people deported from
Sweden
and
Denmark.
This comes after the KRG has accepted more than
2000 people deported from Europe since 2005, and the
Iraqi Government has accepted more than 300 people into
Baghdad, after they were deported from their
homes in Europe.
These deportations have regularly
violated the human rights of those deported and have
taken place without any regard for morality.
Without any human principles or respect even for
their own laws they used handcuffs, anesthetic
injections, beatings and racist humiliation.
On many occasions they used military flights or
cargo planes as though the refugees were war criminals.
-:2:-
We also note that prior to being
deported, they have been imprisoned in detention centres
for as long as two years.
We also note the comments of Tania
Tal’at, a member of the Iraqi Government, saying that
the Iraqi government accepts deportations due to a
number of protocols signed with the European
Governments, through which, if you continue to accept
people deported from Europe, you would no longer have to
pay back loans borrowed from European Governments by the
Saddam Hussein regime.
If this is true, you are playing politics with
the lives of Iraqi refugees.
By terminating whatever agreements
you have made with the European Governments, and
refusing to allow them to deport anybody to any part of
Iraq, you would back up your principled words, which won
you credibility and support among the people of Europe,
and you would help to stop the injustice of the
detention and deportation of Iraqi people.
We are therefore writing to request
you take a stand and make it clear you will not be party
to the unjust and inhumane immigration policies of the
European Governments, by legally committing your
governments not to accept anymore deportations, by
closing your airports to them, and by terminating the
agreements with European Governments to accept them.
We look forward
to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely
Jennie Formby
National Secretary
Food, Drink and Tobacco Sector
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