{"id":523,"date":"2017-05-22T13:20:13","date_gmt":"2017-05-22T13:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.federationifir.com\/en\/?p=523"},"modified":"2017-05-22T13:20:13","modified_gmt":"2017-05-22T13:20:13","slug":"urgent-appeal-to-pcs-delegates-at-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.federationifir.com\/en\/2017\/05\/22\/urgent-appeal-to-pcs-delegates-at-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Urgent Appeal to PCS delegates at conference!"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We call on all trade unions to join our campaign to stop deportations to Iraq! \u00a0The UK government has arrested more than 30 Kurdish and\u00a0Iraqi people\u00a0since 1 April. \u00a0This is all taking place at a time when Iraq is being plagued by war and violence,\u00a0which is forcing so many to make the dangerous journey across\u00a0the sea to Europe.\u00a0\u00a0The daily tragedy of the refugees on the borders of Europe is a direct consequence of the policy of closing borders to people whose homes have been turned into a battlefield of civil war, unrest and insecurity. \u00a0\u00a0The disaster facing refugees places a tremendous responsibility upon European governments.\u00a0 Whilst the UK and Europe talk about human rights they have provided no realistic solution to prevent the wave of refugees seeking safety in Europe.\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\"><!--more--><\/span><\/h3>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 14pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The Home Office is using handful of major airlines to take Iraqi deportees as scheduled passengers on: <\/span><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rj.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Royal Jordanian<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.turkishairlines.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Turkish Airlines<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and <\/span><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.qatarairways.com\/uk\/en\/homepage.page\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Qatar Airways<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Strong resistance by deportees and supporters may yet win out several flights have been cancelled in the last week. \u00a0The last large scale deportation to Iraq was booked via a charter flight 21 June 2011. That flight was called off at the last minute as <\/span><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.indymedia.org.uk\/en\/2011\/06\/481148.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">campaigners blockaded the coaches<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> leaving Colnbrook and Harmondsworth and lawyers scrambled behind the scenes to get removal papers quashed. By 2012 Iraqi refugees appeared to be on reprieve, as years of campaigning by IFIR and others had finally pushed the Iraqi national government passing a resolution to refuse deportation flights. \u00a0Politicians in the Iraqi parliament are moving again on this issue: last month over <\/span><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.federationifir.com\/en\/?p=498\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">100 MPs signed a call<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for a new parliamentary resolution against deportations. The first of the arrested Iraqis, 36 year-old <\/span><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.federationifir.com\/en\/?p=475\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Aras Ismail <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">from Kirkuk, was put on a scheduled Royal Jordanian flight to Baghdad. Four security guards reportedly locked him in the plane\u2019s toilet for the duration of the flight, gagged and handcuffed with his legs tied together. His home of Kirkuk is currently a war zone under partial control of Daesh (ISIS). Just the day before the flight, there were reports that Daesh had executed 12 people in the town. As reports of <\/span><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.middleeasteye.net\/Iraqi-asylum-seeker-handcuffed-and-hooded-in-forced-removal-from-UK\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Aras Ismail&#8217;s ordeal made it into regional press<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and campaigning against the deportations grew, the flights seemed to reduce in number. And then a new airline appeared on the scene. Since 2005, Royal Jordanian had been the only commercial airline carrying individual deportations to Iraq. But, whether or not because of the bad publicity and campaign pressure, the next wave of deportations at the start of May instead featured Turkish Airlines\u2019 flights via Istanbul to Bahgdad. \u00a0Qaranmin Amin, also from Kirkuk, was deported on a Turkish Airlines flight from Heathrow at 6pm on 4 May. <\/span><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.federationifir.com\/en\/?p=509\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Assan Yaba Assan<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, from Mosul, was due to fly on 6 May, again with Turkish Airlines, but his flight was cancelled on the day. Following an appeal from IFIR and Assan&#8217;s partner, Turkish Airlines received phone calls and emails asking them not to collaborate in the deportation, which may have been a factor in its cancellation. Another three deportations scheduled with Turkish Airlines for 9 May were also cancelled at the last minute. One of the refugees successfully resisted, and this may have led the airline or the Home Office to call off all three. However a further 3 people have been given notification that they may be deported within the next 72 hours. \u00a0Tragically an Kurdish asylum seeker who came to the UK as a child and following 11 years of living in the UK with no hope as he saw it of ever gaining citizenship and committed suicide in Morden at a carwash on 16th of May 2017.<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000; font-size: 14pt;\">\u00a0Join with IFIR to Demand:<\/span><\/h3>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 14pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2219<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stop forcibly deporting people to Iraq<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 14pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2219<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sign our online petition<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 14pt;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.change.org\/p\/amber-rudd-mp-stop-the-uk-government-forcibly-deporting-people-toiraq?recruiter=29857008&amp;utm_source=share_petition&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=share_email_responsive\"><b>https:\/\/www.change.org\/p\/amber-rudd-mp-stop-the-uk-government-forcibly-deporting-people-toiraq?recruiter=29857008&amp;utm_source=share_petition&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=share_email_responsive<\/b><\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 14pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2219<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Get your Branch to write a protest letter to the Home Office copying in<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"mailto:IFIR@hotmail.co.uk\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IFIR@hotmail.co.uk<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 14pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2219<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Support the No Deportations to Iraq emergency motion<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 14pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2219<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Make a <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Donation to support the work of IFIR:<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Account name: International Federation of Iraqi Refugees (IFIR)Account number: 21449591, Bank name: HSBC <\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sort code: 40-04-07<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 14pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IFIR:<\/span><b> CONTACT<\/b><b>: 00447856032991, 0041788532004,009647701421416<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 14pt;\"><b>07895636633<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<h3><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We call on all trade unions to join our campaign to stop deportations to Iraq! \u00a0The UK government has arrested more than 30 Kurdish and\u00a0Iraqi people\u00a0since 1 April. \u00a0This is all taking place at a time when Iraq is being plagued by war and violence,\u00a0which is forcing so many to make the dangerous journey across\u00a0the &hellip;<\/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-523","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\/523","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=523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.federationifir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/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=523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.federationifir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.federationifir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}