News today of the beginnings of another round up of UK/Iraqi Kurds for another 'ethnic charter flight' to KRG Iraq/Kurdistan.

Deare Hamanajam a Liverpool/Iraqi Kurd (8 years residency in the city) was detained on 23rd December and given 'open ended removal directions'; which read, "You are to be removed to the KRG no sooner than 72 hours from the date of this notice, and no longer than 24 days from this notice", "you are to be removed on a specially chartered flight", served on the 29th December 2008. The Home Office are now in the process of rounding up detaining up to 60 other Iraqi/Kurds to make sure this charter is full.

KRG and the rest of the region is still rife with problems. With Turkey bombing northern villages allegedly for suspected PKK sympathies, whilst Iran frequently bombs targets along its western border with Iraqi Kurdistan, and ongoing disputes between the old rivals of Talibani. (President of Iraq) and Barzani (Regional Head of the Kurdish autonomous zone), battles between Kurdish Peshmerga and Iraqi troops in Southern disputed cities, not to mention the controversy over the number of plush new buildings going up while there remain unoccupied, buildings not finished if party allegiance is not proclaimed.

In addition there is a general air in the country of bitterness as people are forcibly returned to the country where old scores are not forgotten, where the infrastructure of law and order is partisan and in its infancy, and where the country cannot cope with mass returns of men for whom there is insufficient housing or employment. Despite the drilling for oil in the region most petrol is bought from roadside traders, smuggled into KRG from Iran.

Many of the men being returned on charter flights had been living in the UK for ten years and more, had integrated well, speaking excellent English having been granted the right to work had contributed to the UK national wealth in taxes and community charges, whilst settling and raising families. The sudden disappearance of these men from their families, their communities and their places of work, and returned to a country which is not prepared for their return makes no sense to anyone.

So randomly does the Border and Immigration Authority organise the charter flights that not long before Christmas, and during the festival of Eidd, 49 men and 68 security were flown on a French chartered aircraft to Erbil in Kurdistan, where it was refused permission to land 3 times because the airport was not expecting the flight, and the airport was insufficiently staffed because of the annual Eidd holiday and celebrations. You would think the Home Office would know this. Poor research and total disregard for the cultures and customs of the country + let alone for the autonomy and authority over their airspace, respect for the human dignity and distress of their passengers, and the cost to the rest of us of a flight refused landing permission.

So bad was the Home Office organization of this flight that the plane unable to get confirmation it could land in KRG had to make stops in Romania and Turkey. The men remained on the plane for 21 hours in total before returning to the UK to be subjected to a second forced removal a few days later.

Many of the men had come from Kirkuk, which was bombed, allegedly by Islamic insurgents, killing families in a restaurant as they socialized and ate together during Eidd. The disputed city (KIRKUK) in which Kurds were forced from their homes during the Saddam years, and the city repopulated with Arabs from the South and from the Marshes (recklessly and deliberately destroyed under the dictatorship of Saddam), is a source of great emotional distress and conflict.

Many Kurds want to reclaim their family homes and land. Iraqi Arabs contest this ideology as they have put down roots in the City.

The EU allies say that the Arab population who have lived in the City for a decade should be allowed to remain as they have demonstrated settlement. Across the EU many Kurdish detainees facing imminent removal and those removed; have expressed their frustration over this perceived hypocrisy over the last few months, and their point is made over and over: if a decade of illegal occupancy in Kirkuk gives settlement rights over and above historical title, then how is it that a decade of settlement, integration, contribution to the host EU community, especially the UK in terms of obligations in tax and community charge, setting up home, raising a family, providing services, and without committing any major or minor crimes, why is it that the UK and other European countries don't grant the same right to settlement in the EU?

This is more than just another Kurdish ethnic charter flight. This is about our contribution to further destabilizing an already fragile and fledgling KRG state by our disregard for its' people and the state of play on the ground.

No more 'ethnic charter flights, no more forced removals of any foreign nationals living in the UK who wish to remain in the UK, papers for all!

Make your New Years resolution for 2009, 'Resist all removals locally/regionally/nationally'.

Miriam Hollis /  miriamhollis@hotmail.co.uk

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Miriam Hollis