We call on all Freedom-loving people, refugee and human rights organisatons, labour groups and trade union organisations to join our campaign to stop deportations to Iraq.
European Court of Human Rights Council of Europe
Date: 24/04/2017
I am writing this letter on behalf of Iraqi’s and Kurdish refugees currently detained in UK detention centres. As you are aware more than 50 Iraqi’s and Kurdish people have been arrested and are being held in different detention centres across the UK. Many of those held in the UK have been resident in the UK for ten to fifteen years and have UK wives, partners and children.
I am writing on behalf of the Iraqi and Kurdish community to complain about Royal Jordanian airlines allowing their charter flights to be used by the British state to forcibly deport people back to Iraq.
Around 30 asylum seekers have reportedly been rounded up and detained in facilities across the UK ahead of mass deportation plans. And an alleged series of recent events, including the gagging and confinement of one asylum seeker in an aeroplane toilet, makes this scenario even more concerning.
R t Hon Amber Rudd MP Home Office 2 Marsham Street London
SW1P 4DF Amber Rudd Date:13/04/2017
The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees (IFIR) called a demonstration outside the Home Office on Thursday 13th April to protest at the arrest of more than 30 Iraqi and Kurdish asylum seekers. We were joined by the families and children of the asylum seekers and others in the Iraqi community, as well as MEPs, trade unionists and human rights organizations.
It appears to be in preparation for a deportation flight. While Britain is still at war in Iraq, it insists that it’s safe to deport refugees to a war zone.
Samir Mohammad, who has been in Britain for 17 years, is one of them. He’s lived in Sheffield with his British wife Anne Marie and their children Zahara and Soran.
On Thursday 13th April, the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees (IFIR) held a picket in front of the Home Office in London. The protest was against the arrest and detention of 30 Iraqi and Kurdish asylum seekers. Those arrested have lived in the UK for as long as 17 years, and one of those detained has two young children with his long term partner in the UK. The detainees have been informed they will be removed from the UK in the next 7 to 10 days. IFIR fears this means the UK Government is preparing the first forcible deportation charter flight since 2011.
10 April 2017
An Iraqi refugee is due to be deported this evening, as part of the first mass deportation to Iraq since 2011. Campaigners are condemning the action, and organising protests.
Aras Ismail was taken from his cell this morning and informed that he would be deported later today. He is scheduled to be put on the 17:05 Royal Jordanian Airlines flight to Amman, and will then be flown to Baghdad on April 12th.
He was detained last week as part of a series of raids on more than 30 Iraqi refugees, who are now in detention centres. The remainder of those detained are expected to be deported on board a chartered flight in the coming days and weeks. Many of those detained have been living in the UK for years and have families here.
If the deportations happen, it would be the first chartered flight deportation to Iraq since 2011, when the Iraqi authorities agreed not to accept any such flights in Iraqi airports following a campaign of public pressure. The Iraqi government appears to have gone back on this agreement, and the British and Iraqi authorities are now thought to be cooperating, with the Iraqi authorities even being granted access to the refugees while in detention.
Dashty Jamal, from the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees, said: “We strongly condemn this forced deportation by the UKBA at a time when Iraq is in a state of war and the Iraqi people are still paying the price for the imperialist actions of the British and American governments. We ask all freedom loving people to stand against these actions. We call on the British government to immediately halt the deportations, and we call on Royal Jordanian Airlines not to play any role in them.”
ENDS
NOTES
-
The campaign against the deportations is being run by the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees
-
A protest is planned on Thursday evening outside the Home Office against the deporations. Hundreds are expected to attend.
-
For more information, please call Dashty Jamal on 07720291516