LONDON: Britain is set to send 30 Kurdish asylum seekers to Iraq on a single charter flight organized by the UK Home Office.
Irbil’s mission in Iraqi Kurdistan involves significant risk. The contractors overseeing the yatra have received specialized training in dealing with the “high threat of kidnapping from both Daesh and other terrorist groups”.
Some of the deportees have been settled in Britain for more than two decades, and will leave behind families and careers.
A man set to be deported on Tuesday’s flight told The Guardian newspaper: “The whole process is embarrassing. We are human beings. I have been here for 20 years.
“I have A-levels. I speak six different languages. I’m not a criminal or a drug dealer, I haven’t done anything. The more I think about it, the more upset I get.”
Public protests against the deportation took place on Monday in both London and Kurdistan.
Bella Sankey, director of the charity Detention Action, said: “We know of at least 11 people with British children and grandchildren who may be deported to Iraqi Kurdistan. From the violence and turmoil of that region several decades ago had escaped from here.”
Another refugee, speaking from a UK detention center before his deportation, said: “I swear that every person who returns to Kurdistan will be in danger.
“Some have already received threats. We are concerned that we will be caught as soon as we arrive at the airport in Irbil.
“Some people in my country will never think twice about shooting us in the head. There are some cruel people out there. ,
Immigration rights campaigner Karen Doyle said: “The Home Office is planning to send survivors of painful torture to a dangerous and volatile area that shows an utter disregard for human life.
“The men we are talking to have made their lives in the UK and have wives and children here. Many have been unable to obtain legal representation while in custody. This government ignores the personal trauma of the fliers.” has been.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “We make no apologies for the removal of foreign offenders and people with the right to stay in the UK. That’s what the public expects and why we regularly operate flights to different countries. “
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