Mass deportation to Iraq - detainees hunger strike
Categories: Articles:Asylum & Refugees |
Published: 09/06/2011 |
Views: 1864
At least 70 Iraqi refugees have been rounded up in the UK over the last few weeks, as the UK government plans a controversial mass deportation charter flight to Baghdad.
Officials from the Iraqi government are currently visiting detainees to confirm their identities so that they can be deported, as part of an agreement between the two governments. The majority of the detainees have refused to meet with the officials in protest at their role in the deportations.
NCADC has been contacted by several detainees and their friends over the last few days. One such caller was Joanne, from County Durham. She has been living with her partner Adam Aziz Ali for almost 4 years, but he was snatched while at his regular reporting at the Home Office. She doesn't know what to do. All she wanted was to get married and settle down with Adam.
The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees (IFIR) has confirmed that around 24 detainees at Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centre have started a hunger strike in protest. A solidarity demonstration has been called outside the centre at 6pm tonight (see below for details)
A statement from the IFIR, which consists of Kurdish and Iraqi refugees, says:
"Some of us don't have any homes or nowhere to go in Iraq. If we were returned we would be left to survive for ourselves on the streets with nothing. Some of us don't even know if our family members are alive or dead"
Read more at the
NCADC news blog
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