Ibrahim Ali Karim, an Iraqi refugee being held in Colnbrook detention centre, tried to commit suicide last night when staff told him he was going to be deported to Iraqi Kurdistan the next day. 

He told the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees:

‘they came in and told us they were going to send us back the next day.  I tried to get to the kettle and put my hand in it but the guards dragged me away.  I’ve lived in Yorkshire for five years and it’s my home.  I left Iraq because an Islamic group were after me.  I don’t even have any family there now.’ 

Other people in Colnbrook and Brook House complained about violent treatment at the hands of security guards who came to move them at the same time. 

However early this morning detainees were told by detention centre staff the flight had been cancelled and they would not be deported. They have since been moved out of short term holding, where they were taken last night, and back to long term holding in the detention centre.

Dashty Jamal of the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees says:

‘the UK government wants to convince the British people that Baghdad is safe and that their war has brought democracy and security to the country even as Iraq descends further into sectarian violence and a cycle of killing.  Once again we are asking people to stand against these policies.  People should not be forced back to any part of Iraq.

Richard Whittell of the Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq says:

‘while it condemns the racism of the BNP on Question Time the UK Government, is deporting and imprisoning people simply because of where they were born.  All Iraqi detainees should be released from detention immediately. 

 (Ends)

Contact: 07824996724, 07856032991

www.csdiraq.com

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Notes for editors

1. The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees campaigns for the rights of Iraqi refugees and against forcible deportations.  It is a member of the Coalitions to Stop Deportations to Iraq (www.csdiraq.com)

2. 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 stand at approximately 900.

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 On 15th October ten people were deported to Baghdad on a similar mass deportation flight, although the other thirty people on board were returned in farcical circumstances (see www.csdiraq.com for previous press releases).  As recently as the 11th 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)

5. Deportation charter flights 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

6. To operate a charter 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.

7. Standard practice on charter 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.

8. For more details on previous deportation charter 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

9. On 19th October 2009 six protestors were found not guilty of blockading a mass deportation flight to Iraqi Kurdistan in May 2009.