“This is a secret agreement between Britain and the Iraqi government. How is it reasonable that they tie our hands and feet, and handcuff us, and for eight people to get us and put us in a car and then deport us to Iraq, to Baghdad?” Dana Mohammed Abdullah, a Kurdish asylum seeker, told Rudaw on the phone from prison.
Abdullah called on Kurdish officials to defend them and halt their deportation.
One organization trying to defend Kurdish asylum seekers is the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees (IFIR).
“In this campaign of the British government, most of those detained and sent to prisons are citizens of the Kurdistan Region and from the disputed territories. Since last September, more than 26 individuals have been deported,” Dashti Jamal, the federation chief, told Rudaw.
Jamal’s organization hires attorneys to help those fighting deportation.
Taha Ali Ibrahim, another detained asylum seeker, described the conditions of his imprisonment.
“I have been abroad for 27 years now, but I do not have £27 in my pocket. I have realized that it is better for me to go back to my country than to live like this. I do not want to be sent back like this. I wish there had been a camera here to [show where I am imprisoned]. The toilet and the bath are in my room. I should eat food near the toilet? Is this humanity in this country [the UK]?” Ibrahim told Rudaw.
More than 70 Kurdish asylum seekers are imprisoned across 12 UK jails. Thirty-one asylum seekers have been freed through the efforts of the IFIR. There are 3,000 Kurdish asylum seekers in Britain.
One of the professed aims of the Brexit referendum was to address the grievances of many Britons who want to take back control of their own immigration laws from Brussels. Right-wing groups have demanded the deportation of asylum seekers and immigrants.
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