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An open letter to Mr. Kofi Annan
United Nations Secretary-General
Re: Deportation of
Kurdish asylum seekers from Britain
Dear Mr. Annan,
In violation of
the Geneva Convention of 1951 and Human
Rights Charter in regard to asylum seekers,
the British government has forcibly deported
49 Kurdish asylum seekers to Iraqi
Kurdistan.
On the night of
November 21 2005, 15 Kurdish asylum seekers
were flown handcuffed from London to Cyprus
airport after being subjected to beating and
humiliation. Later they were taken in a
military airplane to Erbil in Iraqi
Kurdistan.
34 more asylum seekers were also maltreated
and deported handcuffed from London to Iraqi
Kurdistan in a military airplane on 5
September 2006. These were not prisoners of
war or criminals but asylum seekers.
This is an extremely
inhumane and racist step. It is a clear
violation of their human rights and the
right of people to safe asylum.
Background
A few weeks prior to the
war on Iraq, the UK government suspended all
hearings of cases of Iraqi asylum seekers
and later the Home Office started rejecting
the cases of the Iraqi asylum seekers in
numbers and cutting their social security
benefits, evicting them from their
accomodation. The measures of the British
Home Office involved arresting and
engineering the sacking by their employers
of Kurdish workers in the city of Hull to
force them to agree to their deportation.
This happened while these asylum seekers
were working peacefully and paying tax
according to the law, integrating with
British society and striving to support
themselves and their families.
The UK government as a
party that directly participates in the war
and the occupation of Iraq is a major source
of insecurity and chaos in Iraq. In the name
of bringing democracy to Iraq, they have
brought together heads of tribes, and
ethnocentric and Islamic groups from whom
nothing can be expected apart from reaction,
igniting civil sectarian and ethnic war,
depriving women and children of their
rights, keeping people in poverty and
stamping upon freedoms and civil and
individual rights of people in Iraq.
The war that the UK
government launched against the Iraqi people
has claimed the lives of thousands of
people, displaced thousands more and forced
them to flee to the surrounding countries,
and kept millions in a situation controlled
by lack of security, deprivation and
uncertainty.
Kurdistan is not much
better than the other parts of Iraq. Under
both the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and
Kurdistan Democratic Party’s militia, this
region is controlled by lawlessness,
administrative and political corruption and
oppression, prosecution of opponents, and
shooting at peaceful demonstrations. As a
result thousands of youth in Iraqi Kurdistan
are forced to flee to surrounding countries
or to European countries to seek a peaceful
and humane life. Mass immigration is the
direct outcome of the policy that the UK
government has adopted in Iraq and therefore
it is this government’s duty to recognise
the Iraqi asylum seekers as refugees.
I have talked about the
risk of deporting the Kurdish refugees in a
few parliamentary meetings here in British
and I have twice sent letters to Mr. Tony
Blair and his answer was that they would
refer this issue to the Home Office. The
Home Office did not answer our letters.
Therefore, I request you
to investigate and monitor the forcible
deportation of these 49 asylum seekers whose
lives are at risk in Iraqi Kurdistan. I
request you intervene in this issue, take
measures against the decision to deport the
Iraqi refugees, and ask the UK government to
stop this policy and immediately observe and
meet the articles of the Geneva convention
of 1951.
Along with a number of
refugees’ organisations and members of
parliament in Britain, we stand against the
deportation of the Kurdish asylum seekers
and therefore we request that you exert
pressure on British government to:
1.
Stop the policy of deporting the Iraqi
asylum seekers and allow them to present and
defend their cases. Lack of access to legal
representation is a very significant
problem, as is the difficulty faced by legal
representatives in being able to put the
true picture of conditions in Northern Iraq
before a court.
2.
Recognise
the Iraq and Kurdish asylum seekers as
refugees as they are victims of the war and
lack of security in Iraq.
3.
Stop all attacks on the asylum seekers
including stripping them of social services
like houses, unemployment benefit and the
right to work.
4.
Release all Kurdish refugees currently
arrested in UK.
The situation of the
Iraqi Kurdish refugees in Britain is very
poor and they are left in uncertainty. The
outcome of this situation will face you as
well, as an international organ responsible
for human rights. Therefore we ask you to
play a role in halting the deportation of
the Iraqi asylum seekers.
Dashty Jamal
For International
Federation of Iraqi Refugees
September17, 2006
____________________________________________________________________________________________
PO.BOX1575,
ILFORD, IG1 3BZ, LONDON UK, Tel: 0044-
07856032991
d.jamal@ntlworld.com
Burhan Fatahburhanfatah@aol.com
Jasim Ghafurjasm_rg@yahoo.co.uk
Tel:/
07877489626 Tel:/
07866757213 Office
Tel:/ 0161 234 2784 ,www.csdiraq.com |
