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17/12/09
PRESS RELEASE
First deportations to Iraq since
failed Baghdad flight leaving toda
More than fifty people are currently
being taken from detention centres
to an airport, from where they will
be deported to the Kurdistan region
of northern Iraq.
‘Soran’, who was detained in
Colnbrook detention centre in
Heathrow, told the International
Federation of Iraqi Refugees:
‘they woke us up at 5am this morning
and told us we were going back
today. I can see the coaches
outside. They told us if we don’t go
on voluntarily they’ll force us on.’
’Nazir’, currently held in
Harmondsworth detention centre,
says:
‘I’ve got scars all over my stomach
from when a terrorist group tortured
me with electric shocks. I still
have to take medicine everyday but
they’ve kept me in solitary
confinement for the last two days
and refused to give me my medicine.
If I go back I will be targeted
again. I don’t know why they’ve
given me this ticket – it is to the
KRG area but I’m from Mosul. Even
the UNHCR says people shouldn’t be
sent back there.’
They have written protest letters to
the Iraqi Government and the
Kurdistan Regional Government
demanding all airports in Iraq be
closed to those European countries
trying to forcibly deport people.
After the Iraqi Government refused
to accept some of the people on the
UK Government’s mass deportation in
October, its spokesman told
Al-Jazeera that they would not
accept forcible deportations but in
the past week the same government
accepted 80 people, deported by
force to Baghdad from Norway and
Sweden.
The Kurdistan Regional Government
claims it does not have the power to
refuse deportations but the Iraqi
Government says it is the KRG’s
responsibility to refuse them.
A representative of the Iraqi
Government has said they have to
accept refugees back so they do not
have to pay back loans given by
European Governments to Saddam
Hussein’s government.
The demonstration comes as the Iraqi
Government is being put under
increasing pressure in Iraq to stop
accepting forcible deportations.
People who have already been
deported are working together within
the KRG and Iraq to pressure the
government to take a stand against
forcible deportations, while Iraqi
MPs have formed a pressure group to
demand the Iraqi Government tear up
all agreements for such with
European governments.
The International Federation of
Iraqi Refugees held a demonstration
outside the Iraqi Embassy on Tuesday
and handed a letter to the
Ambassador demanding the Iraqi
Government stop accepting people
deported by force from Europe.
International Federation of Iraqi
Refugees
Coalition to Stop Deportations to
Iraq
www.csdiraq.com
(Ends)
Contact: 07856032991, 07824996724
www.csdiraq.com
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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.
It is a member of the Coalitions to
Stop Deportations to Iraq
(www.csdiraq.com)
2. 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
monthly charter flights deporting 50
people at a time since the beginning
of 2009, currently stands at over
1000.
3. 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
4. Many of those deported had fled
the KRG authorities, to whose mercy
they are being sent back. At least
three people have committed suicide,
while others have been killed in car
bombs and kidnapped, since being
deported. Many others live in
hiding. Last month, a report by
Amnesty International revealed "a
pattern of abuses" committed by KRG
security forces. A 2007 report by
Human Rights Watch similarly
revealed that KRG security forces
"routinely torture and deny basic
due-process rights to detainees."
The Amnesty International report,
'Hope and Fear', is available at
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=18152.
The Human Rights Watch report,
'Caught in the Whirlwind', is
available at
http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2007/07/02/caught-whirlwind-0.
5. Violence and bloodshed continue
in Iraq, which saw 1,891 civilian
deaths in the first six months of
this year. As recently as the 26th
October more than 150 people were
killed by a series of bombs in
Baghdad
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8325600.stm).
There are also widespread food
shortages and lack of access to
clean drinking water in many areas
of Iraq
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7856618.stm)
6. As the UK government seeks to
increase the number and frequency of
deportations, it has started to
increasingly use specially chartered
flights to deport as many as 80
people at a time. In 2008 alone,
there were 66 such flights,
deporting a total of 1,529 people.
7. Mass deportation flights limit
refugees’ access to due legal
process. The UK Border Agency's
Enforcement Instructions and
Guidance states that: "charter
flights may be subject to different
arrangements where it is considered
appropriate because of the
complexities, practicalities and
costs of arranging an operation."
Deportees and their representatives
are not even told the date of the
flight. On the day of the flight,
they are woken up early in the
morning and forced to switch off
their phones so they are unable to
instruct their solicitors to submit
last-minute appeals. More details
can be found in the Stop Deportation
network briefing:
http://stopdeportation.net/node/1
8. 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.
9. Standard practice on mass
deportation flights, confirmed by
people who have been deported, is
for each deportee to be shadowed by
at least two security guards,
handcuffed and forced onto the plane
under the threat of violence. Any
disobedience or attempt to resist
has been met with disproportionate
force to 'restrain' the deportees. A
mass deportation flight to Iraqi
Kurdistan in September 2008 saw
deportees who tried to leave the
plane beaten by the security guards,
with one man's head hit against a
window of the plane smashing it. The
flight was cancelled.
10. For more details on previous
deportations to Iraq see the
www.csdiraq.com website and:
http://csdiraq.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1&limit=5&limit...
http://csdiraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=50&Itemid=1
http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=3208
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/mar/30/immigrationpolicy.immigra...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/12/asylum-seekers-kurds
11. On 19th October 2009 six
protestors were found not guilty of
blockading a mass deportation flight
to Iraqi Kurdistan in May 2009.
Dashty Jamal
Secretary
International Federation of Iraqi
Refugees-IFIR
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