Iraqis who were on last week’s returned mass deportation flight,have gone on hunger strike tin Brook House and Colnbrook detention centres to demand their immediate release.

A statement released by the strikers says:

‘The reason we are going on hunger strike is because the UK government’s immigration policies are very poor.  We have been in detention centres for months and years and our cases have not been handled professionally.  We are all locked up in detention, which is exactly like a prison, but most of us have never committed any crime whatsoever.  An ACD category prisoner gets better treatment than we do. 

We are going on hunger strike until they release us.  We have families who depend on us, wives and children who need our support.

Most of us are being falsely removed to countries like Afghanistan and Iraq, which are clearly war zones.   Most of us have families in the UK.  What are we supposed to do?  Leave them behind or take them with us right into the middle of a war zone to be killed? 

The immigration laws and policies are clearly not fair and the only way you will find this out is by visiting us here in detention.  Even most of the G4S security staff think that immigration policies need to change for the better. 

We need a system that will give us chance to live in peace.’

It comes after more people have reported being violently assaulted by security guards on the mass deportation flight that deported eight people to Baghdad, but had to bring the other 36 people on board back to the UK.  When they landed in Italy on the way back to change planes, security guards on the plane were especially brutal in punishing any protest, apparently even eliciting the censure of the Italian authorities.   

‘S’, who has asked not to be named, told the Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq:

‘they got my head in a headlock, beat it, put a blanket over it, pushed me down to the floor then dragged me around.  I’ve had bad headaches since, I can’t move my neck properly, I have swollen wrists and I can't sleep.  They were worse than Saddam Hussein’s men.’ 

Several others have reported similar stories.  At least one man is still being held in solitary confinement in Brook House detention centre after he protested and was assaulted during the return flight’s stopover in Italy. 

An Iraqi Government spokesman told Al-Jazeera the Iraqi Government was against the UK government forcing people back to the country, but questions remain as to why eight people were forced off the flight on Thursday.

The Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq says:

‘the British government’s role in this sordid farce has been a blend of incompetence and intolerance, and given its history on immigration issues it will no doubt try to deport people to Baghdad again. 

The Iraqi Government’s role is less clear however and we want unambiguous confirmation that it will not accept anymore forcible deportations anywhere in its territory, and that it will return the people who were forced off the plane on Thursday back to their homes in the UK.’

A demonstration was held outside parliament on Saturday in protest at the Iraqi deportations, a statement has been released condemning the deportations and individuals, signed by groups and organizations (at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ), and an Early Day Motion has been signed by MPs in the Houses of Parliament. 

(Ends)

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Notes for editors

1. The Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq campaigns against the forcible deportation and detention of Iraqi refugees.  Previous press releases about the flight can be found at www.csdiraq.com

2. At least four million Iraqis have been forced to flee either to another part of Iraq or abroad since the war began in 2003’ http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/ 2007/07/29/oxfam-report.html

3. As the government seeks to increase the number and frequency of deportations, it has started to increasingly use specially chartered flights to deport as many as 80 people at a time. In 2008 alone, there were 66 such flights, deporting a total of 1,529 people
 

4. This week’s flight is the first to southern Iraq.  According to Home Office figures, 632 people were forcibly deported to the KRG region in the north between 2005 and 2008. The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees estimates that the figure, with the monthly charter flights deporting 50 people at a time since the beginning of 2009, currently stands at approximately 900.
 

5 As recently as the 11^th of October three car bombs exploded in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi and killed 19 people. Violence and bloodshed continue in Iraq, which saw 1,891 civilian deaths in the first six months of this year. There are also widespread food shortages and lack of access to clean drinking water in many areas of Iraq (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/ world/middle_east/7856618.stm)

6. Mass deportation flights further limit refugees’ access to due legal process. The UK Border Agency's Enforcement Instructions and Guidance states that: "charter flights may be subject to different arrangements where it is considered appropriate because of the complexities, practicalities and costs of arranging an operation." Deportees and their representatives are not even told the date of the flight. On the day of the flight, they are woken up early in the morning and forced to switch off their phones so they are unable to instruct their solicitors to submit last-minute appeals.  More details can be found in the Stop Deportation network briefing: http://stopdeportation.net/ node/1
 

7. To operate a mass deportation flight, the Home Office contracts a range of private companies. Airlines that are known to have been used include Hamburg International and Czech Airlines. Bus companies to drive people from detention to the airport have included WH Tours and Woodcock coaches. Private security companies used to escort deportees include Group 4 Securicor and SERCO
 

8. Standard practice on these flights, confirmed by people who have been deported, is for each deportee to be shadowed by at least two security guards, handcuffed and forced onto the plane under the threat of violence. Any disobedience or attempt to resist has been met with disproportionate force to 'restrain' the deportees. A mass deportation flight to Iraqi Kurdistan in September 2008 saw deportees who tried to leave the plane beaten by the security guards, with one man's head hit against a window of the plane smashing it. The flight was cancelled
 

10. For more details on previous mass deportation flights to the KRG, see:
http://csdiraq.com/index.php? option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1& limit=5&limit...
http://csdiraq.com/index.php? option=com_content&task=view& id=50&Itemid=1
http://www.corporatewatch.org. uk/?lid=3208
http://www.guardian.co.uk/ politics/2008/mar/30/ immigrationpolicy.immigra...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/ world/2008/dec/12/asylum- seekers-kurds