Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Letters from Kurdish deportees

transmitter | 17.10.2006 01:48 | Migration | Repression | Birmingham

These letters from a number of Iraqi-Kurdish asylum seeker who were forcibly deported on 5 September, 2006 (see  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/09/350214.html) were received by Dashty Jamal from the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees ( http://www.federasion.org). They were passed to the European Council Presidency on 11.10.2006 in European Parliament.

An open letter to the Home office of the UK government.

My name is Burhan Namiq, I was born on 06/03/1980 and am from Kadamfary in Sulaimanyha City, Kurdistan Iraq. And was deported from the UK in September 2006.

Since returning to Kurdistan I have had a heart attack and it’s from my bed in a Kurdish hospital that I write this letter to you.

I sought asylum in the United Kingdom; stayed and lived there without committing any crime for two years, but you did not accept my claim for asylum and determined that I had no right to stay and was therefore subject to being deported.

That decisions made me depressed, isolated and forced me to consider suicide. I have tried many different ways at different times to end my life; by trying to kill myself using razor, by eating one box of tissues. These attempts did not work and you kept me in the detention centre until myself and others were deported to Kurdistan on the 5th September 2006. The treatment in detention and the deportation can only be described as inhuman and humiliating.

Only 2 days after my removal I was sent to hospital. I had suffered a Heart attack due to depression and the inhuman treatment I received whilst in you ‘care’.

I hold the UK government responsible for my life, for what I have experienced and my future and I strongly condemn the UK government for their inhuman treatment of detained asylum seekers.

I have asked the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees to act as my representative and have asked them to investigate my case.

---------------

To The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees,

We are a group of former UK asylum seekers. We were recently forcibly deported back to Kurdistan. We were forced to leave Kurdistan between 1-8 years ago because of the political economic and social situation in Iraqi Kurdistan.

We Emigrated to the UK looking for a better life free from political persecution. The British Government has justified our forcible deportation by claiming that Iraqi Kurdistan is safe but this is not true. In the last month the Kurdish Authorities have shot at demonstrations against lack of electricity, water supply and fuel and
arrested the organisers of these demonstrations.

We particularly want to draw your attention to the way we were treated in detention centers and the way we were deported.

We were imprisoned for several months prior to our deportation in detention centers in single cells without access to newspapers and magazines leaving us feeling cut off and isolated. On the day of our deportation we were woken up by several security guards coming into our cells. They forced us out of our rooms we were no given time
to change or put shoes on. We were treated like criminals. We were escorted out of the detention centre handcuffed and forced onto a coach. Once on the plane we were given flak jackets and caps to wear. There were two security guards per asylum seeker. We were taken straight to Erbil airport where we were forced onto the tarmac. The plane flew off leaving the Kurdish authorities to pick us up.

We are writing you this letter in the hope that you can prevent others being treated in the way we were treated. We believe the Home Office broke the Geneva Convention and the European Human Rights Convention by forcibly deporting us. We are relying on you to publicize our stories and to take our complaints forward with the Home Office
to ensure the abuse we suffered is investigated. We wish you success in your campaign to stop other Kurdish asylum seekers still in detention from being forcibly deported.

Regards
Name occupation address phone number

1- Balen Sabir Mechanic Sulaimanya

2- Mahmood M Rashid Unemployed Sharbazher

3- Sarkawt Mohammed Unemployed Sulaimanya

4- Bahadin Abdullah Abdul Unemployed Sulaimanya

5- Shamal Hama Student Darbandikhan

6-Karwan Fatah

7-Makwan Farag Amen

8-Kawa Ahmad

9-Burhan Namiq

10-Muhmod Muhamad Ahmad

----------------

For more information in Kurdistan please contact Rebwar Arif on 009647702142843
In the UK please contact: Mobile: 07856032991 Dashty Jamal
 d.jamal@ntlworld.com, Burhan Fatah  burhanfatah@aol.com, Jasim  Ghafurjasm_rg@yahoo.co.uk, Mobile: 07877489626 or 07866757213 Office: 0161 234 2784
www.csdiraq.com

transmitter

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech