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LONDON, August 19 - The United Kingdom should
cancel plans to return failed asylum-seekers to Iraq
at this time given unsafe conditions in that
country, Human Rights Watch said today. The U.K.
Home Office has already rounded up scores of Iraqis
and detained them in deportation centers, suggesting
that such returns may be imminent.
The Home Office confirmed on August 15 that the
authorities are detaining failed asylum seekers in
preparation for deportation to Iraq, but has
declined to provide numbers. According to the
Refugee Council, a London-based non-governmental
organization, the authorities had detained 43 Iraqis
as of August 13. Press reports indicate that the
number now may be as high as 100.
A Home Office spokeswoman said on August 14 that not
all areas in Iraq are affected by armed attacks, and
that only persons not at risk of persecution or
requiring humanitarian protection would be sent
back. A Ministry of Defence plane is reportedly
scheduled to fly the first group to Arbil, in the
mainly Kurdish northern part of the country, on
August 28.
“At a time when the Foreign Office advises British
citizens against traveling to Iraq and warns of
attacks by insurgents, it is perverse to round up
Iraqis to send them back against their will,” said
Joe Stork, deputy director Human Rights Watch’s
Middle East Division. “Safety and security are
entirely relative in Iraq today, so this is not the
time to be forcing anyone to return.”
Human Rights Watch said that the situation in Iraq
remains extremely unstable. In addition to a general
absence of law and order in many parts of the
country, insurgent attacks and indiscriminate
bombings have also occurred in Arbil and other
northern cities, posing a grave risk to civilians.
Individuals also risk kidnapping and assassination.
The U.K. Foreign Office website, updated on August
17, warns that despite “fewer security incidents and
heavy security” in the Kurdish cities of Dohuk and
Sulaimaniyya, “there is still a threat of attack.”
The site notes, “On June 20 at least 13 people were
killed in Arbil when a suicide bomber attacked
police.” A May 4 attack on a police recruitment
center in Arbil, the website says, resulted in “a
large loss of life.”
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner
for Refugees, in a September 2004 Return Advisory
that remains in effect, “strongly advise[d]” states
to suspend any forced returns of Iraqi nationals
“until further notice” and urged states to “postpone
the introduction of measures which are intended to
induce voluntary returns.”
International law prohibits the return of anyone to
a place where his or her life or freedom may be at
risk. Given the precarious security situation
prevailing in Iraq, the forced return of persons to
that country risks violating a range of fundamental
rights, including the right to life and liberty, as
well as the right to be free from torture and cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment.
Human Rights Watch said that individuals threatened
with forced repatriation should have the right to
challenge deportation and detention orders. The
organization also said that detentions should only
be used as a last resort, when returns are imminent
and for a narrow set of circumstances such as risk
of flight.
www.hrw.org
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