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ERBIL, Iraq, Aug 20 (AFP) - 21h15 - Kurdish
leader Massoud Barzani on Saturday blasted a
decision by Britain to send back to war-torn Iraq
dozens of Kurds who were refused political asylum in
the United Kingdom.
Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) condemned
the move, saying it "was unnecessary to force these
Kurds to leave Britain".
Barzani's group, which controls one half of northern
Iraq's Kurdish autonomous zone, said in a statement
that some of the returnees could be going back to
areas outside the Kurdish areas where security is
poor.
The British Home Office announced on August 16 that
it had begun rounding up failed Iraqi asylum seekers
and planned to deport them to their own country, but
insisted it would only deport detainees to areas of
Iraq that were safe.
The announcement came just over a month after the
deadly bomb attacks that killed scores on London's
transport system, amid a widespread clampdown on
extremists.
At the time, the UK's largest refugee organisation,
the Refugee Council, urged British authorities to
reconsider the dangers of forcing people to return
to a nation that is shaken by daily violence.
"All you need to do is look at the facts to see how
dangerous Iraq is at the moment," said Margaret
Lally, assistant director of the organisation.
"The government is ignoring the recommendations of
the United Nations, whose position is that it is too
early to force people to return" to Iraq, she said.
According to Lally, "lots of Iraqis want to return
to Iraq and rebuild their lives once (the situation)
allows them to do it."
Britain is home to some 7,000 Iraqi asylum seekers.
Until now they have only been sent back on a
voluntary basis because the situation on the ground
was considered so dangerous.
However, the Home Office said it had been working
towards a policy of enforced returns since February
of last year.
The ministry did not say how many people would be
affected, but the Refugee Council said 43 Iraqis had
already been held and were to be deported.
A KDP official, Sirwan Mohammed, said the first
group of 33 expelled Kurds had arrived at Erbil
airport last Wednesday aboard a British airplane.
AFP
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