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Returned asylum seekers from Britain,
beaten in Iraqi Kurdistan
29.3.2008
By Hannah Godfrey
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Asylum seekers say expulsion flight ended in beating
in Iraq's Kurdistan region
March 29, 2008
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', -- The
biggest operation yet to return Iraqi asylum seekers
from Britain to Kurdistan in northern Iraq ended in
violence when some of those on the plane were beaten
by guards on their arrival, it was claimed Friday.
Iraqis on Thursday night's flight said security
officers had boarded the plane at Erbil
International airport in Kurdistan autonomous region
in 'northern Iraq and' beat people who refused to
get out of the aircraft.
"They were armed with guns, and they beat people
from Mosul and Baghdad who refused to leave the
plane," said one man on the flight, speaking by
phone from Iraq, who gave his name as Rizgar.
"They even hit them in the back of the head with
their guns, many people were bleeding. The British
security guards were also hitting people." |
Kurdish Security officers had boarded the plane at
Erbil International airport in Kurdistan autonomous
region in 'northern Iraq and' beat people who
refused to get out of the aircraft. |
According to Dashty Jamal of the Federation of Iraqi
Refugees, it was armed guards from the Kurdish KDP
party who had boarded the plane after it landed and
beat the passengers.
In all, 50 Iraqis whose claims for asylum were
rejected had been taken to Stansted airport, in
Essex, and put on the charter plane to Erbil. In
London, the Home Office confirmed that the operation
was successfully completed.
Rizgar said that the group was later transferred to
minibuses but their belongings were left unguarded
in the street for 20 minutes, and some say their
property was stolen during this time.
A number of those on Thursday's flight were
apparently Kurds from Mosul, Kirkuk and Baghdad,www.ekurd.net
despite British
government assertions that enforced returns involve
Iraqis from the Kurdistan regional government area
further north in Iraq. Another man on the flight,
Sherwen, aged 19, said that he came from Mosul, and
had to sleep rough in Erbil after his arrival.
A Christian whose father had worked for Saddam
Hussein, he said a Kurdish guard told him on arrival
that he would be killed because "you're a Christian,
not a Muslim".
"I don't have anywhere to go, and I am not safe. The
British government said they would give us $100 when
we arrived, but we haven't been given anything. I
can't even buy myself something to eat. For three
days I've had no sleep and nothing to eat."
Another asylum seeker, Hraz Hassan Mohammed, aged
22, speaking in England, said that he had been
removed from the plane because there were
insufficient seats, yet his belongings were left in
the hold and are now in Iraq.
He also said that as he and others were being
transferred from a detention centre in Dover to
Stansted, four detainees managed to overpower the
accompanying guards and jump out of the window as
the vehicle was speeding along the motorway.
His solicitor, Gary McIndoe, said: "These people are
being rounded up, moved around the country, and then
loaded onto a planes as if they were livestock."
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
guardian co.uk
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