{"id":475,"date":"2017-04-19T20:13:52","date_gmt":"2017-04-19T20:13:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.federationifir.com\/en\/?p=475"},"modified":"2017-04-19T20:13:52","modified_gmt":"2017-04-19T20:13:52","slug":"asylum-seeker-is-gagged-and-locked-in-a-toilet-while-sent-back-to-a-war-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.federationifir.com\/en\/2017\/04\/19\/asylum-seeker-is-gagged-and-locked-in-a-toilet-while-sent-back-to-a-war-zone\/","title":{"rendered":"Asylum seeker is gagged and locked in a toilet while sent back to a war zone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Around 30\u00a0asylum seekers\u00a0have reportedly been rounded up and detained in facilities across the UK\u00a0ahead of mass deportation plans. And an alleged series\u00a0of recent events, including the gagging and confinement of one asylum seeker in an aeroplane toilet, makes this scenario even more concerning.<\/span><\/h3>\n

The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees (IFIR<\/a>) claims that UK authorities have detained around 30 people of Iraqi origin \u2013 who Britain has refused asylum \u2013 after routine reporting, and have taken them to detention centres, including\u00a0Colnbrook, Campsfield and Morton Hall. But\u00a0many of these people have lived\u00a0in the UK\u00a0for over a decade. They\u2019ve built lives, and now have partners and children here.<\/span><\/h3>\n

Authorities have told them that they will\u00a0leave the country in the next 7-10 days.<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u201cYou are my enemy\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Many detainees at Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre have asked the IFIR for help, so\u00a0the group has been in constant contact.<\/span><\/h3>\n

IFIR General Secretary Dashty Jamal spoke to\u00a0The Canary<\/em> about several incidents of authorities telling detainees that the Iraqi government has \u201caccepted to deport\u201d them back to Iraq and is preparing travel documents for them. This is the case for\u00a0Mariwan Mohammed and Barzan Nasir.<\/span><\/h3>\n

While on the phone to another detainee, Jamal said he could hear Nasir shouting in the background \u201cyou are my enemy\u201d. They told him that Nasir was with three Iraqi officials. Jamal asked to speak to one of the men, asking\u00a0them who they were and who had given them permission to visit the detention centre. They claimed they were from a human rights organisation. But the detainees insisted that this was false.<\/span><\/h3>\n

Gagged and locked in a toilet<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Jamal also told The Canary\u00a0<\/em>that authorities had already forcibly removed one asylum seeker on Tuesday 11 April. Aras Ismail, 36, was placed on a Royal Jordanian flight\u00a0to Baghdad. Four security guards reportedly\u00a0locked him in the plane\u2019s toilet for the duration of the flight. He was allegedly gagged, handcuffed, had his legs tied together, and was assaulted.<\/span><\/h3>\n

Ismail\u00a0has since reached Baghdad. He had been in the UK since 2007. Authorities had held him in detention for one month. He is originally from Kirkuk in Iraq; a place where, only a day before\u00a0his deportation, there were reports<\/a> that\u00a0Daesh (Isis\/Isil) had executed 12 people.<\/span><\/h3>\n

An unacceptable\u00a0policy<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Jamal said:<\/span><\/h3>\n

This is unacceptable. The UKBA [UK Border Agency] has clearly made an agreement with the Iraqi Government and is making deals with the lives of these victims who are refugees. The UK Government are clearly seeking to legitimise their agreement with Iraqi Government. The UKBA wants to avoid responsibility for this action by blaming the Iraq officials.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Canary<\/em> sent the Home Office details of these events and asked for comment. We had received no response at the time of publication.<\/span><\/h3>\n

Iraqis in the UK often cannot return to Iraq even if asylum is refused, for fear of persecution or death. Those who have not received asylum must report to a police station or the Home Office each week, risking detention each time despite their long-term integration in the UK.\u00a0Mariwan Mohammed, for instance, is married to an EU citizen with two children.<\/span><\/h3>\n

The current flurry of detentions is reminiscent of actions taken in 2011<\/a>, when the UN condemned\u00a0a number of\u00a0removals to Afghanistan and Iraq. And the allegations above raise questions about\u00a0both abuse and the disruption to these individuals\u2019 family lives.<\/span><\/h3>\n

Get Involved!<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2013 Find out more about IFIR<\/a>.<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2013 Read more Canary<\/em> articles on immigration<\/a>.<\/span><\/h3>\n

Featured image via Flickr\/Victor<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Around 30\u00a0asylum seekers\u00a0have reportedly been rounded up and detained in facilities across the UK\u00a0ahead of mass deportation plans. And an alleged series\u00a0of recent events, including the gagging and confinement of one asylum seeker in an aeroplane toilet, makes this scenario even more concerning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":365,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-home","category-information","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.federationifir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.federationifir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.federationifir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.federationifir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.federationifir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.federationifir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.federationifir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.federationifir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.federationifir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.federationifir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}