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Dashty Jamal’s Speech at the Institute of
Race Relations Conference
(Racism ,Liberty and the war on Terror)
First
I would like to thank the Institute of Race
Relations for inviting me. On behalf of the
Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq and
International Federation of Iraqi Refugees I
would like to thank those who have supported
our campaign and stood against deporting
Iraqi asylum seekers.
In a
century which started with the war of
terrorists in which some European countries
including the UK government are involved,
the issue of refugees and their rights is
used as ammunition to advance the policies
of the right and of the right wing parties
in society. This policy, which aims directly
at restricting refugees’ human rights, also
aims to attack the civil and individual
rights of people in Western countries.
They
want to send back asylum seekers to Iraq
where the government which was finally
agreed after the election has no
independence and its members quarrel amongst
themselves. There is a dark scenario in
place – division by ethnicity and religion,
which is springing up everywhere: you cannot
find any safe areas in Iraq.
Kurdistan is under the control of 2 militia
parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)
and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP),
who have kidnapped and arrested many
political activists in an attempt to create
an atmosphere of fear and to gag dissenting
voices and protestors.
I
would like to remind you about the recent
big attack of the British government on
Kurdish asylum seekers, and how it started
attacking, arresting, following, and
detaining asylum seekers along with evicting
them from their accommodation and stopping
their benefits, and many other actions
contrary to human and refugee rights.
The
mass migration from Iraq by extremely
dangerous routes is one of the major
problems of this period. Over the years
hundreds of disasters have forced Iraqis to
flee Iraq. The people of Iraq took in the
past and still take now terrible risks on
the way out of Iraq in order to eventually
enjoy rights as recognised refugees. Since
1991, following the first Gulf War and the
brutal attack on Iraq, the savage economic
sanctions and the prolongation of the life
of the Ba’ath regime as the result of these
sanctions and the ongoing warmongering
policies of the US government against the
Iraqi people for the sake of its New World
Order, have caused enormous hardships and
tragedies for the people living in this
country. The result of all these polices
today is a huge machine of war and terrorism
which claims the lives of dozens of people
everyday.
These conditions, the war and the
occupation, have turned Iraq from a large
modern society to a real jungle. The war
that the US and UK governments and their
allies started against the people of Iraq
has so far claimed the lives thousands of
innocent people. Thousands more have been
made homeless, displaced and forced to leave
the country, and millions are left to live
in insecurity and confusion, deprived of the
most basic rights.
The
situation is so bad that the sectarian and
ethnocentric parties fighting the USA, and
those loyal to the USA, which are in power,
are engaged in all types of crimes. Many
children, women and innocent civilians fall
victims of this terrorist contest.
Terrorism, bombing, kidnapping and the
imposition of fear, and feeling unsafe, are
all the outcomes of the war and the
militarism imposed on Iraq by the US and
British governments.
Neither the terrorist groups, nor the
American troops know any limits to killing
and destruction. Today terrorism, sectarian
and ethnic war, lawlessness, and high rates
of organised crime are norms of daily life.
Hardly a day passes by without scores of
decapitated bodies being found in Baghdad.
Scores more are forced everyday to leave
their homes and become homeless due to the
sectarian war.
The
oppression of the Islamic groups and
militias, and their crimes in the middle and
south of Iraq, and the lawlessness,
corruption, terrorizing opponents, and
shooting at peaceful demonstrations, by the
two ruling parties in Kurdistan, have forced
thousands of people to flee to surrounding
countries or head toward Europe seeking a
safer life.
This
is the situation which prompts some Iraqis
to choose asylum and flee the country. As
long as the situation is not changed in
other words, and the American and British
forces follow the policy of expansion and
war, the people of Iraq are left no choice
but asylum. This is one side of the reality
of the destructive policy of the British
government towards people of Iraq and the
other side of the government’s policy is
towards the Iraqi asylum seekers in Britain.
We
believe that the policy of the British
government change and the British forces
should be withdrawn. The British government
should support the people of Iraq in
establishing a secular state and equal
rights for all citizens. The people of
Kurdistan should be supported in their
desire to secede in order to establish a
secular state, and to be free from ethnic
and national oppression.
To
give an example of recent news about the
problems of Iraqi Kurdish asylum seekers
here, recently a number of Iraqi Kurdish
asylum seekers in the city of Hull were told
by their employers that they could no longer
work for them. They had been working in this
country for 3-4 years with the permission of
the Home Office, paid taxes and NI
contributions, rent bills and council tax.
On 20
November 2005 15 Iraqis were forcibly
removed from the UK back to Iraq, beaten,
handcuffed, and wearing helmets and flak
jackets on the military leg of the flight
from Cyprus to Erbil. This year 32 or 34
were forcibly removed on 5 September after
the Home Office gave notice that they would
ignore pending applications for judicial
review. Lawyers did manage to obtain full
injunctions stopping the removal of five
people, but their places were taken by five
others. According to the account of two
asylum seekers who were in Colnbrook and
forcibly removed, on that morning September
they were woken by 9 Home Office security
guards entering their sleeping quarters.
The security guards told them to remove
their footwear. They were pushed out of the
detention centre with approximately 30 other
Kurdish Asylum seekers with nothing on their
feet. The guards were swearing at them.
Once
outside the detention centre they were
handcuffed and escorted on to a coach
accompanied by 2 security guards per asylum
seeker. The coach took the asylum seekers
to RAF Brize Norton .The asylum seekers were
then pushed onto a military plane, once on
the plane they were given flak jackets, and
the plane flew directly to Erbil Airport.
Before the plane landed the security guards
gave the asylum seekers $100 dollars each.
The two asylum seekers reported that they
ripped up the money. When the plane landed
they were forced off the plane one by one.
After 10 minutes the plane took off leaving
the asylum seekers to be picked up by the
KDP. We fear that the Home Office will try
to remove more people, though we are not
aware at this moment of more people with
removal directions
We ask
all freedom loving people, organisations,
parties, labour organisations and those
supporting refugee rights to play a more
effective role in the struggle for securing
refugee rights by actively supporting the
International Federation of Iraqi Refugees
and the Coalition to Stop Deportations to
Iraq
in their struggle for all
refugee rights, stopping deportation, and
making the following demands as regards
Iraqi and Kurdish asylum seekers:
Thank
you
16-9-2006 |