UKBA Resume deportation to Iraq

IFIR Press Release        16 February 2015  

Khalid  Hassan from Colin brook detention centre contacted IFIR  reported that he has been given a ticket to be returned tomorrow 17 February.  Khalid has been given a ticket from Royal Jordanian airlines to be flown to Amman and then onto Erbil in Northern Iraq.  

Khalid also said”

I have lived in UK for 13 years. I don’t want to go back. It is not safe for me in Iraq”

Majeed an Iraqi Kurd has held in a detention centre contacted (IFIR) to express concerns regarding his detention and that of other Iraqi Kurds he has met whilst being detained at Morton Hall.

Majeed has been held in detention for two years, being held for more than two years is a very demotivating experience.  He has at times felt completely hopeless.  His choice is to remain here imprisoned or to return to a life of fear and uncertainty in Iraq.  He confessed there have been times when he has felt so desperate that he has tried to kill himself, seeing this as the only option to escape his current predicament.  Majeed  was moved to  a psychiatric  hospital whilst in detention because he becames so ill. Majeed was in the psychiatric hospital for six months.  He is still on a very strong medication which makes him very sleepy .  Most of Majeed’s family were murdered by the former Sadam regime.  

Dashty Jamal Secretary of the IFIR said the decision to resume deportations at this time is against all principles of Human Rights.  Erbil is only a few miles from the ISIS front line.  Today all over the internet are images of Kurdish young men, whose only crime is to try to defend their homes, who have been put in orange jump suits, caged and threatened with being burnt to death. 

Cameron claims that he supports the Kurds battle against ISIS yet at the same time is returning people to this war zone.  This is wrong! Dashty called for all deportations to Iraq to be stopped and all Iraqi nationals to be released from detention.

We ask that trade unionists and everyone who values human rights to write letters to the UK Home Office supporting IFIR’s campaign to release all Iraqi’s currently held in detention and immediately stop all deportations to Iraq.

International Federation of Iraqi Refugees-IFIR