Home | Friday 4th April 2008 | Issue 627

Back to the Full Issue

DODGY EXPORT-IMPORT BUSINESS

Even as the government was declaring its hellbent intent to keep the troops in Iraq indefinitely – citing the levels of violence that last week killed hundreds, their immigration arm was busy forcefully deporting 55 Iraqis back to Iraq with the laughable-if-it-were-not-so-serious claim that it was ‘safe’ for them to go back.

Early on Thursday (3rd) morning, the Home Office sent in special armed guards to Campsfield and Colnbrook detention centres. They rounded up the unlucky refugees and put them on a coach that whisked them off for either a special military or Jordanian Airlines flight.

The hypocrisy of it all is made even plainer when you read the current travel advice from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office: “We advise against all travel to Baghdad and its surrounding area, the provinces of Basra, Maysan, Al Anbar, Salah Ad Din, Diyala, Wasit, Babil, Ninawa and At-Tamim... We also advise against all but essential travel to the provinces of Al Qadisiyah, Muthanna, Najaf, Karbala, and Dhi Qar. The security situation in Iraq remains highly dangerous with a continuing high threat of terrorism throughout Iraq, violence and kidnapping…”

Since they were taken by the home office goons, six of the detainees have gone missing. They were put on a German plane and then flown to northern Iraq, in the area under the Kurdish Regional Government. Not knowing where they had ended up, they refused the leave their plane before being attacked and pushed off the plane at gunpoint by KRG soldiers. One detainee, Rizar Bahem, tried to reason with the guards, saying “I’m not from Kurdistan, why are you leaving me here?” He received a blow from the butt of a soldier’s gun for an answer.
The deportees are not the first to be forcefully deported to the most dangerous place on earth, and, if the government has its way, they won’t be the last.

Meanwhile, the same government plans to airlift some 2000 Iraqis who have been cooperating by working closely with the British Occupation forces, taking them directly to sunny Slough (perhaps in the hope that they’ll take the first flight home once they’ve experienced that particular cultural desert).

* For more see www.csdiraq.com

Subscribe to SchNEWS: Send 1st Class stamps (e.g. 10 for next 9 issues) or donations (payable to Justice?). Or £15 for a year's subscription, or the SchNEWS supporter's rate, £1 a week. Ask for "originals" if you plan to copy and distribute. SchNEWS is post-free to prisoners.

SchNEWS, c/o Community Base, 113 Queens Rd, Brighton, BN1 3XG, England
Phone: +44 (0)1273 685913
email: schnews@brighton.co.uk

@nti copyright - information for action - copy and distribute!