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France, Britain to return Iraqi Kurd
volunteers
14.1.2006
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VIENNA, Jan 13,
2006 (AFP) - France and Britain are working together
to send volunteer Iraqi Kurd refugees back to their
region in the north of the strife-torn country,
French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said on
Friday.
Sarkozy told AFP that he and British Home Secretary
Charles Clarke were sending officials next week to
the region, which is relatively safe by Iraqi
standards, to negotiate a return agreement with the
authorities there.
"We are talking with Clarke, because together we are
going to send a certain number of illegal immigrants
to Iraqi Kurdistan," he said, noting that Britain
had far better contacts in the region than France.
A French official said the programme would only
concern volunteers.
Britain, which fought in Iraq alongside the United
States, has increased the number of enforced and
voluntary removals to Iraq. More than 1,000 Iraqis
have gone home under voluntary return programmes
over the last two years.
Errors have occurred. British officials went
searching last month for an Iraqi Kurd wrongly
deported to Iraq, so that he could return to Britain
where he would have more time to appeal against his
removal.
Sarkozy, who will run in next year's presidential
election in France, and Clarke appeared to fall out
during the British EU presidency in the second half
of last year, but the French minister suggested
their ties were on the mend.
"We had a long bilateral together. We are in
agreement on almost all of the subjects," he said,
on the sidelines of a meeting of EU justice and
interior ministers in Vienna.
"We both have a willingness to work very closely
together. It is a political willingness that will
see me travel to London in early February."
The two men arrived at the venue side-by-side but
there was no obvious warmth or even chatter between
them.
AFP
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