40+ Iraqi Kurds, locked up in Colnbrook detention centre near Heathrow, have received letters from the Home Office saying they will be forcefully removed to Northern Iraq on 5th September, 2006. Unconfirmed reports have it that there will be a 'charter flight' from Stanstead airport on that day.
The letters, in Kurdish, said that, when returned, deportees will receive a $100 'assistance' as well as accommodation for one month only. The faild Iraqi asylum seekers had been asked to sign 'voluntary return' agreements with the IOM but had refused to do so. There is also unconfirmed news that other Iraqis will be deported tomorrow, August 28th.
Many international organisations have warned that the worsening security situation in Iraq, thanks to the US-UK occupation, means that forcible returns of Iraqi refugees and asylum seekers is in breach of international laws (see, for example, Amnesty International's report).
