Campsfield detainees on hunger strike - protest Sat 27th August

Reports indicate that up to 25 detainees, mostly Kurds, in at the
detention centre near Oxford have been on hunger strike for up to a week in protest at their detention and threatened deportation. Supporters of the Campaign to Close Campsfield, at their monthly demonstration tomorrow Saturday 27 August at 12 noon at the detention centre's main gates, will demand the government halts its
plans.

The government has detained scores of Iraqi failed asylum seekers
around Britain in preparation for the first programme of forced removals, despite United Nations advice against such deportations. This Sunday the 28th right in the middle of the August Bank Holiday week end, the Home Office intend to start
forced removals to Iraq.

"At a time when the Foreign Office advises British citizens against
travelling to Iraq and warns of attacks by insurgents, it is perverse
to round up Iraqis to send them back against their will. Safety and security are entirely relative in Iraq today, so this is not the time to be forcing anyone to return."
Joe Stork, deputy director Human Rights Watch's Middle East Division.

"If the UK does forcibly return asylum seekers it will be the first
government to return individuals to Iraq, a country clearly devastated by insurgency and conflict."
Kurdish Cultural Association - Scotland (KCAS)

Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani [head of the Autonomous Kurdish
Government in Northern Iraq] has blasted the decision by Britain to send back to war-torn Iraq dozens of Kurds who were refused political asylum in the United Kingdom.

"No part of Iraq can be considered safe." - UNHCR London

"We need your solidarity and support. We don't want to be forcibly
deported. We fled Iraq to save our lives. We seek asylum rights under international laws. We don't want our children to be taken from us. We don't want the door to close on our education and other needs in our lives. This policy of 'forced removals' is against every human rights principle. We need you to support us and
protest with us to challenge the deportation policy."
Federation of Iraqi Refugees UK

Similar demonstrations are being held in Nottingham, Manchester,
London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Sheffield and Glasgow.

The existence of centres where people are locked away for no crime on our own doorstep is shameful.

Campaign to Close Campsfield
tel/fax 01865 558145; tel. 01865 726804 / 01993 703994
www.closecampsfield.org.uk