At 1pm today people gathered outside the UK Border Agency (UKBA) on Newport Road in Cardiff to protest in solidarity with the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees who have been holding a two day protest outside the United Nations office in Geneva, there was also a solidarity protest in London yesterday.

Over twenty people braved the drizzling rain, hung banners, held placards and distributed over 150 copies of a leaflet against deportations to Iraq to people passing by. Several refugees from Iraq and elsewhere joined the protest and the reaction from the public was one of the most positive we’ve experienced, with a a number stopping to express their support and beeps of support from passing cars and trucks.

A number of Police officers were waiting outside the UKBA offices and according so some people who has passed by earlier, they had been there for some time. Nevertheless, they barely acknowledged the demonstration, and beyond requesting a copy of our leaflet, left everyone alone, previous issues around where we can hang banners or where we can stand on certain bits of public land have been forgotten.

We are opposed to the entire process of deporting people due to their place of birth, but the injustice is more clear when it is to places like Iraq, a country the British government has a key hand in turning into the unsafe place it is.