Returned refugees still in danger in Iraq (asylum-seekers ousted from UK)

Source: Guardian

On November 20 2005, the first flight of forcibly returned Iraqi asylum-seekers left from Brize Norton military airbase in Oxford. The Home Office has now stopped flying Iraqi Kurds on military aircraft. Since September, Kurds have been forcibly deported via a Jordanian airline to Jordan and from there to Erbil airport in northern Iraq. As we write, Rozhar Omer is being held at Heathrow by two bodyguards. He was due to be escorted on to a plane flying to Jordan and then on to Erbil.

The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees still maintains Iraq is not a suitable place to return "failed" asylum-seekers to. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees recently issued a report confirming that northern Iraq is unsafe. Iraqi Kurdistan's two ruling parties, the KDP and PUK, regularly imprison and attack trade union activists, socialists and other political opponents. Moreover, in addition to the threat of an Iraqi civil war, there is an external threat from Turkey and Iran, both of which have bombarded Kurdish villages in recent months. Those returned to Iraqi Kurdistan face not only poverty and unemployment, but the threat of harassment, torture and death. That is why the IFIR is calling for the immediate suspension of all removals to Iraq and the right for all Iraqis living in the UK to study, work and access public services.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2217108,00.html

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Since the US states Iraq is safer, countries feel free to eject asylum seekers back to Iraq. The only losers in this US propaganda game are the Iraqis. Again.