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LONDON, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Failed Iraqi
asylum seekers accused the British government of
recklessness on Friday for threatening to send them
back to their homeland despite its admission that
the country is dangerous.
Around 40 Iraqis gathered outside the Home Office in
London to protest against the government's decision
to toughen its policy on deporting people to Iraq.
There have been similar demonstrations in other
British cities this week.
Because of the violence in Iraq, the government has
allowed Iraqis to stay in Britain even after their
asylum applications have failed. It has also given
them limited state benefits.
But London now says it is safe for failed Iraqi
asylum seekers from the Kurdish-controlled northern
part of the country to return, and plans to fly them
back soon.
Iraqi refugee support groups say hundreds of Iraqis
have been detained in recent weeks for deportation
and that the government plans to deport more than
7,000 Iraqis.
A Home Office spokeswoman described those figures as
"way out" and said 38 Iraqis had been detained in
preparation for removal. She declined to say when
they would be sent back.
Iraqis protesting outside the Home Office said they
feared persecution if they were sent back to Iraq.
Farhad Salam, a 34-year-old failed asylum seeker
from the northeastern city of Sulaimaniya, said he
was tortured in an Iraqi jail in 1999 because of his
political beliefs and feared the same thing would
happen if he were deported.
"I would die a long slow death in Iraq," he told
Reuters.
DANGEROUS SITUATION
More than 20,000 Iraqis have applied for asylum in
Britain during the past three years. The vast
majority have had their applications rejected but
have been allowed to stay because of the precarious
situation in their homeland.
The northern provinces of Iraq are widely perceived
to be much safer than Baghdad and central Iraq,
where the insurgency against the U.S. occupation is
raging.
But the Foreign Office advises against all travel to
Baghdad and the surrounding area and "all but
essential travel" to the rest of Iraq, including the
north.
"The security situation is dangerous," it says.
The United Nations' refugee agency, the office of
the UNHCR, says Iraq remains "extremely unstable and
dangerous" and adds that "no part of Iraq can be
considered safe".
It says it is worried about Britain's change of
policy, although it accepts that some Iraqis could
be safely sent back to the Kurdish-controlled north
if they have "strong community links and some form
of support in those areas".
The UNHCR's spokesman in London, Peter Kessler, said
the agency was concerned Britain's plan might set a
precedent for countries such as Germany and Turkey,
with much larger Iraqi populations, to follow suit.
"There are hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees
and asylum seekers across the world and we're
worried that they too could be forced to return," he
said.
Sandy Buchan, chief executive of Refugee Action, a
charity which works with refugees in Britain,
slammed the decision.
"Anyone can see that the situation in Iraq is far
from safe," he said. "We know from experience that
forcing people back before the situation is safe
does not work."
Reuters
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