Iraq refuses to receive a plane carrying Kurdish failed asylum seekers; the UK cancels the flight

Shafaq News/ The Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority refused to receive a plane heading from the United Kingdom to Erbil, carrying 30 refugees. The UK took an unprecedented decision to "forcibly" return 60 refugees to Kurdistan in two groups. The first flight of its kind for a decade. The UK Foreign Office always warns against all travel to Iraq and says there is "a high threat of kidnapping throughout the country, including from ISIS and other terrorist and militia groups." After the decision, many refugee families protested in front of the Kurdistan Parliament office in Al-Sulaymaniyah, calling on the authorities in Baghdad and Erbil to intervene and prevent the implementation of this decision. For his part, an official at the High Commissioner for Iraqi Refugees, Dr. Amanj Abdullah Saeed, told Shafaq News Agency that the scheduled flight was canceled in coordination with the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority, the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, and deputy Muthanna Amin. He confirmed that the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority would not receive any flights carrying refugees. In this regard, the Kurdish representative in the Iraqi parliament, Muthanna Amin, said that the members of the Iraqi parliament are united with preventing forcibly deported Iraqi refugees without a court decision by the authorities in the UK. Amin revealed that he had made contacts with the Iraqi President, the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They all agreed that the refoulement is "preposterous" and "contrary to the rights of refugees guaranteed by special laws." The Kurdish deputy pointed out a partnership between Iraq and the European Union was made in this regard. Article No. 105 of the partnership allows the return of refugees whose asylum requests are exclusively rejected by a court decision. Then, the Iraqi government is asked to receive them. Later, the UK's Interior Ministry canceled the chartered deportation flight to Iraq. According to the Guardian, dozens of Kurdish Iraqis had been detained in preparation for the flight. They were in a state of "acute distress because they fear for their lives if they are returned to the country of their birth." The Ministry's spokesperson said they could not comment "for operational reasons," but a source told the Guardian that some of those on the deportation flight have criminal convictions. Bella Sankey, the director of the charity Detention Action, said: "The cancellation of this cruel mass deportation will come as an enormous relief to the fathers, mothers, children, and grandchildren whose families would otherwise have been torn apart." "It also exposes how Priti Patel ( Home Secretary) has failed to respect people's basic rights or even show a basic competence in international diplomacy in her pursuit of cheap political points." "The Home Office likes to blame 'lefty lawyers' for frustrating their plans, but these plans for mass deportations are expensive, unworkable, largely unlawful, and horribly unjust." A Home Office spokesperson said: "Foreign criminals should be in no doubt of our determination to deport them. We make no apology for removing foreign offenders to keep the public safe. "The Home Office regularly operates charter flights to different countries to remove those with no right to be in the country. The new immigration plan will fix the broken immigration system and expedite the removal of those with no right to be here."