Support Iraqi refugees (IFIR)
Dear all
Since 2005 more than 2000 Iraqi refugees have been deported from the UK to Iraq. According to media reports and evidence collected by the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees, many of those who have been deported are now living in hiding, in fear of the persecution they originally left Iraq to flee. Some have been assassinated. Others have committed suicide only days after being deported. Others have been kidnapped and killed, while others have had mental breakdowns. Many more have had to leave the country and become refugees again.
People have been campaigning against the policies of the UK Government since it started but have so far made little headway. However, after public pressure in Iraq and Kurdistan, much of it from people who have themselves been deported, and media scrutiny around the world, the Iraqi Government and the Kurdistan Regional Government have stated publicly that they will not accept anymore deportations from Europe.
However, in December one hundred people were deported from the UK, Sweden and Denmark as the governments failed to live up to their words. This month, more than fifty Iraqi Kurdish refugees have been arrested and detained in immigration prisons, and have been told they will be deported in the next week.
We need to support Iraqi refugees, and put pressure on the Iraqi Government and the Kurdistan Regional Government to demand they stop accepting deportations from Europe.
We are therefore writing to ask you to send a letter or e mail from your organisation to the Iraqi Government and the Kurdistan Regional Government, to request they stop accepting deportations from Europe. Please also pass this request onto other organisations. You can write your own or use the model letter attached and below. Please send it to:
The injustice of deportations is now more an issue than ever in Iraq and with more pressure from the UK there is a chance the KRG and the Iraqi government can be forced to take a stand against them.
In solidarity
International Federation of Iraqi Refugees
Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq
