Mass deportation flight to Southern Iraq this week
one of no borders | 12.10.2009 12:20 | Anti-racism | Iraq | Migration
A specially chartered, mass deportation flight is scheduled to leave to southern Iraq for the first time. The flight is expected to go to Baghdad.
Contact : 07824 996724
ifir@hotmail.co.uk
PRESS RELEASE
‘Karim’, who has been given a deportation ticket, says:
‘How can they be sending me back to Baghdad. There were three car bombs there on the news yesterday. I have a girlfriend, friends and a life here. I don’t know anyone in Baghdad. The only people I know in Iraq are in Kirkuk, hundreds of miles away.’
Approximately 30 people are being held in immigration detention centres around London and have been given deportation tickets informing them they will be removed to Iraq sometime this week. The UK Border Agency does not release the exact time or date to detainees or their legal representatives.
A statement from the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees says:
‘the government is forcing people back to a country devastated by a war it started. It is utterly inhumane and immoral. They are trying to keep their crimes secret – even the people they want to deport have not been told where they will be sent back to or when. We call on everybody to resist these deportations in any way they can.’ (Ends)
Contact: 07824 996724
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notes for editors
1. The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees campaigns for the rights of Iraqi refugees and against forcible deportations. It is a member of the Coalitions to Stop Deportations to Iraq (www.csdiraq.com)
2. As the government seeks to increase the number and frequency of deportations, it has started to increasingly use specially chartered flights to deport as many as 80 people at a time. In 2008 alone, there were 66 such flights, deporting a total of 1,529 people.
3. This week’s flight is the first to southern Iraq. According to Home Office figures, 632 people were forcibly deported to the KRG region in the north between 2005 and 2008. The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees estimates that the figure, with the monthly charter flights deporting 50 people at a time since the beginning of 2009, currently stand at approximately 900.
4 As recently as the 11th of October three car bombs exploded in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi and killed 19 people. Violence and bloodshed continue in Iraq, which saw 1,891 civilian deaths in the first six months of this year. There are also widespread food shortages and lack of access to clean drinking water in many areas of Iraq (
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7856618.stm)
5. Deportation charter flights limit refugees’ access to due legal process. The UK Border Agency's Enforcement Instructions and Guidance states that: "charter flights may be subject to different arrangements where it is considered appropriate because of the complexities, practicalities and costs of arranging an operation." Deportees and their representatives are not even told the date of the flight. On the day of the flight, they are woken up early in the morning and forced to switch off their phones so they are unable to instruct their solicitors to submit last-minute appeals. More details can be found in the Stop Deportation network briefing: http://stopdeportation.net/node/1
6. To operate a charter flight, the Home Office contracts a range of private companies. Airlines that are known to have been used include Hamburg International and Czech Airlines. Bus companies to drive people from detention to the airport have included WH Tours and Woodcock coaches. Private security companies used to escort deportees include Group 4 Securicor and SERCO.
7. Standard practice on charter flights, confirmed by people who have been deported, is for each deportee to be shadowed by at least two security guards, handcuffed and forced onto the plane under the threat of violence. Any disobedience or attempt to resist has been met with disproportionate force to 'restrain' the deportees. A mass deportation flight to Iraqi Kurdistan in September 2008 saw deportees who tried to leave the plane beaten by the security guards, with one man's head hit against a window of the plane smashing it. The flight was cancelled.
8. For more details on previous deportation charter flights to the KRG, see:
http://csdiraq.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1&limit=5&limit...
http://csdiraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=50&Itemid=1
http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=3208
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/mar/30/immigrationpolicy.immigra...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/12/asylum-seekers-kurds
ifir@hotmail.co.uk PRESS RELEASE
‘Karim’, who has been given a deportation ticket, says:
‘How can they be sending me back to Baghdad. There were three car bombs there on the news yesterday. I have a girlfriend, friends and a life here. I don’t know anyone in Baghdad. The only people I know in Iraq are in Kirkuk, hundreds of miles away.’
Approximately 30 people are being held in immigration detention centres around London and have been given deportation tickets informing them they will be removed to Iraq sometime this week. The UK Border Agency does not release the exact time or date to detainees or their legal representatives.
A statement from the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees says:
‘the government is forcing people back to a country devastated by a war it started. It is utterly inhumane and immoral. They are trying to keep their crimes secret – even the people they want to deport have not been told where they will be sent back to or when. We call on everybody to resist these deportations in any way they can.’ (Ends)
Contact: 07824 996724
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notes for editors
1. The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees campaigns for the rights of Iraqi refugees and against forcible deportations. It is a member of the Coalitions to Stop Deportations to Iraq (www.csdiraq.com)
2. As the government seeks to increase the number and frequency of deportations, it has started to increasingly use specially chartered flights to deport as many as 80 people at a time. In 2008 alone, there were 66 such flights, deporting a total of 1,529 people.
3. This week’s flight is the first to southern Iraq. According to Home Office figures, 632 people were forcibly deported to the KRG region in the north between 2005 and 2008. The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees estimates that the figure, with the monthly charter flights deporting 50 people at a time since the beginning of 2009, currently stand at approximately 900.
4 As recently as the 11th of October three car bombs exploded in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi and killed 19 people. Violence and bloodshed continue in Iraq, which saw 1,891 civilian deaths in the first six months of this year. There are also widespread food shortages and lack of access to clean drinking water in many areas of Iraq (
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7856618.stm) 5. Deportation charter flights limit refugees’ access to due legal process. The UK Border Agency's Enforcement Instructions and Guidance states that: "charter flights may be subject to different arrangements where it is considered appropriate because of the complexities, practicalities and costs of arranging an operation." Deportees and their representatives are not even told the date of the flight. On the day of the flight, they are woken up early in the morning and forced to switch off their phones so they are unable to instruct their solicitors to submit last-minute appeals. More details can be found in the Stop Deportation network briefing:
http://stopdeportation.net/node/1 6. To operate a charter flight, the Home Office contracts a range of private companies. Airlines that are known to have been used include Hamburg International and Czech Airlines. Bus companies to drive people from detention to the airport have included WH Tours and Woodcock coaches. Private security companies used to escort deportees include Group 4 Securicor and SERCO.
7. Standard practice on charter flights, confirmed by people who have been deported, is for each deportee to be shadowed by at least two security guards, handcuffed and forced onto the plane under the threat of violence. Any disobedience or attempt to resist has been met with disproportionate force to 'restrain' the deportees. A mass deportation flight to Iraqi Kurdistan in September 2008 saw deportees who tried to leave the plane beaten by the security guards, with one man's head hit against a window of the plane smashing it. The flight was cancelled.
8. For more details on previous deportation charter flights to the KRG, see:
http://csdiraq.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1&limit=5&limit... http://csdiraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=50&Itemid=1 http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=3208 http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/mar/30/immigrationpolicy.immigra... http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/12/asylum-seekers-kurds
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