Riz Khan - Iraqi asylum seekers
Riz Khan

Iraqi asylum seekers

Is it safe for Iraqi refugees to go home and if not, who should be offering them shelter?

Watch part two

“Leave or face destitution and deportation.” That is the message being given to more than 1,400 Iraqi asylum seekers residing in the UK.

On Friday, the UK tried to forcibly repatriate about 40 of those Iraqis but after landing in Baghdad, the Iraqi government sent around 30 of them back.

This latest incident highlights the increasingly precarious position of Iraqi refugees in Europe.

Earlier this summer, Iraqi asylum seekers in Copenhagen were violently removed from a church and placed in detention.

In Greece, Iraqi refugees are routinely rounded up and secretly pushed back across the Greek border.

Sweden, which used to be the most generous country towards asylum seekers, is now beginning to deport its Iraqi refugees.

For the Iraqis, the majority of which come from minority groups, they say going back to Iraq is a certain death sentence. 

On Monday’s Riz Khan we ask: Is it safe for Iraqi refugees to return to their home country and if not, who should be offering them shelter?

To discuss this, Kirk Johnson, the founder and director of The List: Project to Resettle Iraqi Allies and Dashty Jamal, the secretary of the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees join the programme.

This episode of the Riz Khan show aired on Monday, October 19, 2009.