Skip to content or view screen version

Refugees on hunger strike to protest planned deportations.

M | 08.06.2011 17:01 | Migration | Oxford

24 Iraqi refugees held in a detention centre in Oxford have started a hunger
strike to protest against the government's plans to deport them to Baghdad.


More than 70 people are currently being held in detention centres around the
country. Officials from the Iraqi government are currently visiting them to
confirm their identities so that they can be deported, as part of an
agreement between the two governments.

"Some of us don't have any homes or nowhere to go in Iraq. If we were
returned we would be left to survive for ourselves on the streets with
nothing, which isn't. Some of us don?t even know if our family members are
alive or dead because we haven't had any contact with them for a long time.


"While we have been in England, for all different amounts of times, we have
lived here safely and got on with our lives. We have family and friends
here. Being parted from them at this time is very hard and stressful for
both sides. Some of us are engaged or married, and have wives here in
England. We also have children here, some of us more than one. Some of our
wives are expecting babies. They need to be together as families."


"Everyone has the right to be able to live in a safe country. It is not right
if we are returned to Iraq. Our lives would be ended."


Dashty Jamal from the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees says:


"The UK government is responsible for the tragedy in Iraq. They are playing
politics with the lives of Iraqi refugees. They are making a deal with the
despotic Iraqi regime, which the Iraqi people are currently rising up
against, to send people back


There will be a demonstration outside the Iraqi Parliament in Sulaymania on
Sunday 12th June to protest against the deportations.


For more information about how to support the campaign against deportations
to Baghdad please go to:

 http://www.federationifir.com/english/En.file/camping%20against%20deport%20to%20iraq.html

International Federation of Iraqi Refugees contacts

07856032991 or 07824996724

 ifir@hotmail.co.uk

 http://www.csdiraqi.com

 http://www.federationifir.com

M
- e-mail: info@closecampsfield.org.uk
- Homepage: http://closecampsfield.wordpress.com/

Additions

Update (already)

08.06.2011 17:15


Just got off the phone with one of the hunger strikers and he informed me there are also 15 Afghans on hunger strike too.

M
mail e-mail: info@closecampsfield.org.uk
- Homepage: http://closecampsfield.wordpress.com/