Kurdish Refugee transferred to single room ready for forcible deportation to Baghdad

17 August 2022

IFIR press release:

Kurdish Refugee transferred to single room ready for forcible deportation to Baghdad

Today, Mr Mohammed Osman Faraj from Harmondsworth detention centre contacted IFIR. Mr Faraj has been given a deportation order for tomorrow 18 August 2022 at 1820 to be forcibly deported by Turkish Air lines.

Mr Faraj contacted IFIR and asking for help “I have three children in the UK I Don’t want to be separated from my family”
IFIR has received information stating that Tom Pursglove MP (Minister for Justice and Tackling Illegal Migration), wrote a letter to Mr Nazar Al-Khirullah (Deputy Foreign Minister of Iraq) on 6 April 2022.

In summary the letter states Tom Pursglove’s thanks to Mr Nazar Al-Khirullah in signing an agreement to enable repatriation flights to the Kurdish region of Iraq. In his letter Tom Pursglove wrote: “This will enable the smooth repatriation of Iraqi Kurds, who comprise a significant number of Iraqi’s in the UK” he thanked Mr Nazar Al-Khirullah’s for his agreement, the provision of documentary assistance will help overcome any transit obstacles at Baghdad

Up to 30 Kurdish Iraqi refugees held in detention centres are threatened with forcible deportation to Baghdad (Iraq). The plan is to remove them one by one via Turkish Air lines.

On 31 May 2022 IFIR alongside other refugee campaign groups prevented a planned forcible deportation charter flight to Erbil, Northern Iraq (Kurdish area of Iraq). Mr Faraj is from the Kurdish area of Iraq and has no connection to Baghdad, which is many miles from where Mr Faraj is from.

IFIR urges all refugee rights, human right organizations and trade unions to support our campaign against forcible deportation to Iraq.

END: for more information please contact IFIR on 07720291516

International Federation of Iraqi Refugees-IFIR