Deportation flight of Kurdish asylum seekers in UK cancelled at the last minute  

A deportation flight of tens of Kurdish asylum seekers by the UK Home Office to the Erbil International Airport on Tuesday was cancelled at the last moment, an Iraqi lawmaker and a Kurdish lawyer living in Britain told The New Arab.

On 24 May, Iraqi lawmakers and Kurdish activists in the UK told TNA that the UK Home Office has detained hundreds of Kurdish asylum seekers in order to deport them to the Iraqi Kurdistan region. Most of the asylum seekers have been living in the UK for nearly a decade, with families and children, with their status still pending.  

The cancellation of the deportation flight reportedly came after Kurdish lawmakers in the Iraqi parliament pressed the Iraqi government on the matter. 

"I have spoken to more than ten of the Kurdish asylum seekers and they said Home Office officials have decided to cancel their flight tickets to Erbil International Airport, and they were taken out from their solitary confinement at a British deportation centre," Arian Taugozi, a Kurdish member in the Iraqi parliament from the "For the Sake of People" coalition and a member of the parliament's foreign relations committee, told TNA during a phone interview. 

But he cautioned that despite the flight's cancellation, any decisions taken by the UK Home Office might change at any moment. 

"I sent a letter to the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority three days ago and asked them for clarification of the flight. Their answer was that they are waiting for orders from the Iraqi government. I also spoke with officials from the Iraqi foreign ministry," Taugozi added. "We know that the Iraqi government is not supporting any forceful deportations of any Iraqi nationals to the country for the time being. But the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has shown consent by still allowing the Erbil International Airport to receive deportation flights of Kurds."

Several Kurdish MPs in the Iraqi parliament and Kurdish activists in the UK wrote posts on Facebook further confirming the flight's cancellation after pressure by lawmakers on the Iraqi government to not let Iraqi airports be used for the planned deportation.

TNA contacted Ahmed Hoshyar, director of Erbil International Airport, but he was not immediately available to comment on the issue.  

In a statement last week, the KRG representative in the UK denied reports of a signed agreement between the KRG and the UK cabinet regarding forced deportations of Kurdish asylum seekers back to the Kurdistan region.

The representative, nevertheless, did confirm KRG's coordination with the British government in terms of "pursuing criminals and human traffickers".   

TNA previously contacted the UK cabinet press office, but they referred any questions on this topic to be sent to the Home Office. 

"We make no apology for removing foreign criminals and those with no right to remain in the UK. This is what the public rightly expects and why we regularly operate flights to different countries," a Home Office spokesperson has told The Guardian. "Individuals are only returned when the Home Office and, where applicable, the courts deem it is safe to do so." 

Furthermore, the UK's Home Secretary, Priti Patel, announced on Tuesday that the first deportation flight to Rwanda carrying people who arrived in the UK without authorisation is scheduled to leave on 14 June. 

Kurdish asylum seekers, detained at UK deportation centres, have told activists via live Facebook that they were afraid of prosecution by the Kurdish authorities if forcibly deported back. 

In November,  at least 31 people, mostly Kurds, were found dead off the English Channel, after their boat sank as they were trying to reach the UK illegally.