Across Britain, Iraqis are living in fear of a dawn raid on their home, or of arrest at their place of work or when they go to report at the Home Office.
They fear losing even the precarious position they have found in British society. An increasing number of Iraqi Kurds have been detained in the past month.
It seems that around 60 or more Iraqi Kurds are in detention by now. A number have been told they will be removed to Iraq on September 5.
Blair has not managed to paint Iraq as a sate place as the death toll continues to rise every day. But the conditions in Northern Iraq / South Kurdistan are less well known. But contrary to what the Home Office would have us believe, Northern Iraq too is not free, safe or democratic.
In the last month 400 have been arrested and 60 injured.
Around 2000 young people fled the country within a week, such is people's despair three years after "liberation" by the US and Britain.
Security forces from the two main Kurdish parties, the KDP and the PUK, (Bush and Blair's key allies in Iraq) regularly shoot demonstrators.
invesugauve ournalists are routinely arrested by the security forces.
'Honour killings' and suicides by women have reached epiWH AHS.
Many people arrested in March 2006 in Halabja after protests there remain in prison. factory workers, striking because they had not been paid, were shot at and 13 were injured by the security forces in sulelllanyla
On August 7 1000 people took part in a demonstration in Chamchamal, 10 were arrested by the PUK.
In Darbandixan on August 7 the PUK arrested 100 demonstrators and wounded 11, and protests have also taken place in Kalar, Kifri, Zarayan, Kirkuk
People are fed up with rampant official corruption and incompetence and the luxurious lifestyles of the party leaders and their hangers-on. This contrasts painfully with run-away People who had problems with the KDP or PUK or Islamist groups in the past will still be at risk if they are sent back now inflation, high unemployment rates, petrol shortages, water shortages, power cuts, a losing battle to make ends meet for ordinary people, and persecution if you overstep the narrow bounds of acceptable criticism.
The European Council on Exiles and Refugees said in its March 2006 report, "the current situation in Iraq is such mat une mandalory or torced return of Iragis is unacceptable, and recommends a continued ban on forced return to any part of the country, including the Kurdish Autonomous Region."
The Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq says: "Iraq, including Kurdistan, is dangerous, and it is wrong to return people there. People who had problems with the KDP or PUK or Islamist groups in the past will still be at risk of the same problems if they are sent back now - the KDP and PUK are still in power, and the Islamists are still active. Plus the general security situation is not good." The Coalition is calling on the Home Office to
• recognise that Iraq is not safe, and that people should not be returned there.
•regularise the status of asylum sekers trom Irag to whom they have so far refused protection, by giving them leave to remain, and the right ether to work or to decent levels of benefits. in line with the recent proposals made by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants in their document "Recognising Rights, Recognising Political Realities" published on 13 July.
• For more information contact Sarah Parker on 0207 8090633 or [email protected] or Dashty Jamal, Secretary, International Federation of Iraqi Refugees 0785 603 2991 [email protected]
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