Iraqi Refugees Sent on Plane Ride to Nowhere

Published November 02, 2009 @ 04:26PM PT

I’ve written before about the disregard European governments have shown for the rights and welfare of Afghan refugees who make it to Europe (see here and here), but Afghans are not the only refugees European countries are sending back to their war-torn homelands. So far this year, Denmark and Sweden have forcibly returned hundreds of Iraqi refugees to Iraq against the recommendations of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and, earlier this month, the UK attempted to forcibly return 44 Iraqi refugees to Baghdad. The plan did not go as British immigration officials intended.

When the refugees’ chartered aircraft landed in Baghdad, only ten of the forty four refugees were accepted by the wary and overwhelmed Iraqi government. The other 34 refugees were flown back to the UK and placed in immigration detention.

Stop for a moment and imagine the emotional state those refugees must be in after their Kafkaesque journey.

Because levels of violence vary dramatically between Iraq’s regions, the UNHCR recommends that host country governments assess the asylum claims of Iraqis on an individual basis and provide protection for those from the most violence-ridden areas.

As powerfully illustrated by the deadly bombings in the heart of downtown Baghdad this month –which killed 155 Iraqis and injured more than 500– Iraq is still a country at war with itself. Security, where it exists at all, is tenuous and fleeting.

Vulnerable groups such as religious and ethnic minorities, gays and lesbians, and victims of gender-based violence still face constant predation by armed groups and violence from members of their own communities. Yet, in spite of the human rights reports and the acrid smoke rising from Baghdad’s skyline, the UK is only too happy to toss Iraqi refugees back into the chaos.

[Photo:http://www.flickr.com/photos/vox_efx/ / CC BY 2.0]

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Una Vera is an international development professional living in the northeast United States. Her blogging at Change.org focuses on the intersection of human security, governance, and armed conflict --primarily in Europe and Central Asia. You can follow Una on Twitter @Transitionland.