Guardian: Iraqi asylum seekers face grave risk if sent back home, warns UN
Local Editor
Human rights groups have criticized the government over its decision to deport 50 failed asylum seekers despite a UN warning that the life of those Iraqis could be put at risk due to the violence in their home region.
The Iraqis are due to be put on a flight to Baghdad at 10.45pm tonight, the second such deportation in a week.
Last Wednesday, a dozen failed asylum seekers from Iraq were deported from the UK to Baghdad on a charter plane, even though the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, had asked the government to continue hosting people from central Iraq until the security situation improved enough to allow people to return safely.
A UNHCR spokesman said: "The situation in central Iraq is very unstable due to the prevailing violence, security incidents and human rights violations."
Last week's flight also picked up other deportees from the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. Many of them are understood still to be in custody at Baghdad airport's detention centre.
Keith Best, the chief executive of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, said the charity shared the UNHCR concern about the violence in the region, and had seen evidence of torture.
"With the highly-volatile security situation and continuing human rights abuses in Iraq, I'd ask how the government can assure the safety of those being returned," Best said. "The Medical Foundation has provided care and treatment to a significant number of Iraqis ... who have fled to Britain having been tortured in Iraq. Their health and security depends on adequate rehabilitation and stability."
The charity's own experience, he said, suggested torture still happened in Iraq. "The UK Border Agency should be identifying torture survivors ... and not sending anyone back unless it can be demonstrated their human rights will be respected."
Dashty Jamal, a spokesman for the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees, said some of those facing deportation tonight would fear for their lives in Iraq. "People had a chance to escape the sectarian violence but now they're being sent back. The UK government has a responsibility to these people."
Jamal said the security in Iraq was still so bad people were pouring out of the country. "The UNHCR are condemning the forcible return of these people," he said. "This is not the right solution. The government spends a lot of money sending one person back to Iraq, but every day, 100 people leave Iraq as refugees. There's still no security."
A spokesman for the UK Border Agency said: "We are confident that Iraq is safe for people to return to, and the courts in the UK have supported that decision."
In a statement issued last week, the UNHCR said: "Our position and advice to governments is that Iraqi asylum applicants originating from Iraq's governorates of Baghdad, Diyala, Ninewa and Salah-al-Din, as well as from Kirkuk province, should continue to benefit from international protection in the form of refugee status under the 1951 Refugee Convention, or another form of protection depending on the circumstances of the case.
"UNHCR considers that serious, including indiscriminate, threats to life, physical integrity or freedom, resulting from violence or events seriously disturbing public order are valid reasons for international protection."
However, Matthew Coats, head of immigration at the UK Border Agency, said the organisation only ever returned people after it and the courts were satisfied deportees did not need protection, and after such people had refused to leave voluntarily. "In 2008, the courts found that we were able to return people to Iraq. The security situation in Iraq is significantly better now than it was in 2008, and assisted voluntary returns to Iraq have increased every year since 2007."
Human rights groups have criticized the government over its decision to deport 50 failed asylum seekers despite a UN warning that the life of those Iraqis could be put at risk due to the violence in their home region.
The Iraqis are due to be put on a flight to Baghdad at 10.45pm tonight, the second such deportation in a week.
Last Wednesday, a dozen failed asylum seekers from Iraq were deported from the UK to Baghdad on a charter plane, even though the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, had asked the government to continue hosting people from central Iraq until the security situation improved enough to allow people to return safely.
A UNHCR spokesman said: "The situation in central Iraq is very unstable due to the prevailing violence, security incidents and human rights violations."
Last week's flight also picked up other deportees from the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. Many of them are understood still to be in custody at Baghdad airport's detention centre.
Keith Best, the chief executive of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, said the charity shared the UNHCR concern about the violence in the region, and had seen evidence of torture.
"With the highly-volatile security situation and continuing human rights abuses in Iraq, I'd ask how the government can assure the safety of those being returned," Best said. "The Medical Foundation has provided care and treatment to a significant number of Iraqis ... who have fled to Britain having been tortured in Iraq. Their health and security depends on adequate rehabilitation and stability."
The charity's own experience, he said, suggested torture still happened in Iraq. "The UK Border Agency should be identifying torture survivors ... and not sending anyone back unless it can be demonstrated their human rights will be respected."
Dashty Jamal, a spokesman for the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees, said some of those facing deportation tonight would fear for their lives in Iraq. "People had a chance to escape the sectarian violence but now they're being sent back. The UK government has a responsibility to these people."
Jamal said the security in Iraq was still so bad people were pouring out of the country. "The UNHCR are condemning the forcible return of these people," he said. "This is not the right solution. The government spends a lot of money sending one person back to Iraq, but every day, 100 people leave Iraq as refugees. There's still no security."
A spokesman for the UK Border Agency said: "We are confident that Iraq is safe for people to return to, and the courts in the UK have supported that decision."
In a statement issued last week, the UNHCR said: "Our position and advice to governments is that Iraqi asylum applicants originating from Iraq's governorates of Baghdad, Diyala, Ninewa and Salah-al-Din, as well as from Kirkuk province, should continue to benefit from international protection in the form of refugee status under the 1951 Refugee Convention, or another form of protection depending on the circumstances of the case.
"UNHCR considers that serious, including indiscriminate, threats to life, physical integrity or freedom, resulting from violence or events seriously disturbing public order are valid reasons for international protection."
However, Matthew Coats, head of immigration at the UK Border Agency, said the organisation only ever returned people after it and the courts were satisfied deportees did not need protection, and after such people had refused to leave voluntarily. "In 2008, the courts found that we were able to return people to Iraq. The security situation in Iraq is significantly better now than it was in 2008, and assisted voluntary returns to Iraq have increased every year since 2007."
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