By Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq
Over the last ten days the Home Office has been arresting rejected Iraqi Kurdish asylum seekers in Manchester, Birmingham and Doncaster, presumably with a view to attempting another forced removal to Northern Iraq. This is happening at a time when the UNHCR is warning that Iraq cannot deal with the number of displaced persons it already has, and George Bush intends to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq. The Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq (CSDI) protests in the strongest possible terms against these arrests.
We have said before, and we repeat now, that Iraq, including Kurdistan, is dangerous, and that it is wrong to return people there. People who had problems with the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) or the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) or Islamist groups in the past will still be at risk if they are sent back now - the KDP and PUK are still in power, and the Islamists are still active.
