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UK: Iraqi and Kurds asylum seekers given
deadline to leave Britain
13.3.2008
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Iraqi asylum seekers given deadline to go home or
face destitution in UK
· Government says country is now safe despite
conflict
· Three weeks for 1,400 to join return programme
March 13, 2008
UK, -- Home affairs editor Alan Travis looks
at government plans to send some failed asylum
seekers back home to Iraq
More than 1,400 rejected Iraqi asylum seekers are to
be told they must go home or face destitution in
Britain as the government considers Iraq safe enough
to return them, according to leaked Home Office
correspondence seen by the Guardian. |
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The Iraqis involved are to be told that unless they
sign up for a voluntary return programme to Iraq
within three weeks, they face being made homeless
and losing state support. They will also be asked to
sign a waiver agreeing the government will take no
responsibility for what happens to them or their
families once they return to Iraqi territory.
The decision by the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, to
declare that it is safe to send asylum seekers back
to Iraq comes after more than 78 people have been
killed in incidents across Iraq since last Sunday.
The United Nations high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR)
said its policy was that returns of asylum seekers
to central and southern Iraq and for some categories
to the north of the country were not advisable
because of the continuing conflict.
The Refugee Council said the decision disclosed by
the Guardian was a shocking example of the
government's policy of using destitution to starve
people into leaving the country.
Although the government has repeatedly tried to
return failed asylum seekers to Kurdistan region in
'northern Iraq' since 2005 with special charter
flights to Erbil,www.ekurd.net
it has never regarded
the routes from Britain to Baghdad or Basra, as safe
enough to return anyone to central or southern Iraq.
The letter from the Borders and Immigration Agency's
(BIA) case resolution directorate makes clear that
the home secretary now considers that travel to Iraq
from the United Kingdom is "both possible and
reasonable". It continues: "Therefore these Iraqi
nationals no longer qualify for support under this
criterion."
The 1,400 Iraqis came to Britain before 2005 and
were granted "hard case" support. Although their
claims for refugee status had been rejected, they
were unable to leave the country because there was
no safe way back to Iraq and they faced destitution
in Britain. They have received "section four
support" which includes basic "no-choice"
accommodation, three meals a day, vouchers for
essential items and only utility bills paid.
The BIA internal letter signed by Claire Bennett,
the deputy director of the case resolution
directorate, and dated March 6, says the Iraqis
involved will be required to "demonstrate that they
are taking all reasonable steps to leave the United
Kingdom or that they are placing themselves in a
position in which they are able to do so".
She says the most obvious way they can do that is to
make an application to the International
Organisation for Migration (IOM) for the
voluntary-assisted returns and reintegration
programme to facilitate their return to Iraq.
Bennett describes the IOM as an "independent
non-governmental organisation that can arrange
return to the country of nationality through travel,
financial and other reintegration assistance". But
the IOM is not an independent NGO. As its website
points out, it is an intergovernmental organisation
with a membership solely made up of member states.
It asks all those returning "voluntarily" to Iraq
under its schemes to sign a waiver reading: "I
acknowledge that the IOM has no responsibility for
me and my dependents once I return to Iraqi
territory and I hereby release IOM from any
liability in this respect."
The Home Office letter says a failure to respond
within the timescale will result in support being
discontinued, although there will be a right of
appeal. "The government is committed to ensuring
that unsuccessful asylum seekers do not remain in
the United Kingdom indefinitely. We consider that
voluntary returns are by far the more dignified way
of making a return, but if individuals fail to
leave, their removal may be enforced," it warns.
A Home Office spokesman last night said that all
asylum claims were assessed on their individual
merits by the BIA: "Where appropriate, an
independent judicial process and Iraqis genuinely in
need of our protection, for example some former
interpreters, will be granted asylum. We consider it
reasonable, however, to expect those individuals who
have been found by an independent judge and appeals
process not to need protection to return home. We
prefer people to leave voluntarily but if necessary
we will enforce their return."
Donna Covey, chief executive of the Refugee Council,
said: "It is a nasty policy, and a failed one, that
doesn't achieve its stated aim of encouraging
return. Iraq is still patently unsafe and people
from there are terrified of going back. Removing
support in such cases only results in one thing:
more hungry and homeless people living in constant
fear."
She added that most Iraqis wanted to go home when it
was safe but until then the government should be
offering them the chance to live decently in the UK.
'The treatment is
humiliating'
Two Iraqi Kurds, Fazzel Abdula Ahmad and Sarwar
Rahid Mohammad, have been deported to the Kurdistan
region in the past week, according to refugee
groups. More than 90 Iraqi Kurds have been returned
since August 2005.
Initially the deportees were sent in large groups on
military flights from RAF Brize Norton, via Cyprus,
to the new airfield near the Kurdish city of Erbil.
They complained about being handcuffed and were
ordered to wear flak jackets as they flew over Iraq.
Like others more recently returned to Kurdistan
'northern Iraq', Ahmad and Mohammad were given
tickets for a commercial flight on Royal Jordanian
Airlines. Once in the capital, Amman, deportees are
transferred on to a civilian flight to Erbil, the
Iraqi Kurdistan's capital.
"Iraq, including Kurdistan, is dangerous. The UK
government must stop forcibly deporting Iraqi
Kurds," said Dashty Jamal of the International
Federation of Iraqi Refugees. "Fazzel's wife and
child are currently missing in Iraq and he fears his
life will be in danger."
One Iraqi refugee, Solyman Rashed, who agreed after
15 months in a UK detention centre to voluntarily
return to northern Iraq, was killed in a car attack
in the city of Kirkuk.
Another refugee, Burhan Namiq, 28, complained in an
open letter after being deported 18 months ago back
to his native Sulaimaniyah in Kurdistan: "I sought
asylum in the United Kingdom,www.ekurd.net
stayed and lived there
without committing any crime for two years, but you
did not accept my claim for asylum.
"That decision made me depressed, isolated and
forced me to consider suicide. The treatment in
detention and the deportation can only be described
as inhuman and humiliating.
"Only two days after my removal I was sent to
hospital. I had suffered a heart attack due to
depression and the inhuman treatment I received
whilst in your 'care'."
guardian co.uk
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