RIGHTS-BRITAIN: No Way Forward, No Way Back for Kurdish Asylum Seekers

By Sanjay Suri Reprint | | Print |

Sanjay Suri

DOVER, Britain, Feb 13 2003 (IPS) - Mohammad sits with a few of his Kurdish friends in the meeting room at the Cliffe Court hotel, looking at the forms before him, looking at his future.

The future seems as unreadable as the forms in English that give him new status as asylum seeker. But word has gone around the room that the Home Office will refuse political asylum to thousands of young Kurdish men like Mohammad who have somehow arrived in Britain.

Dover is the first port of call for these refugees – and their last hope. "I know I cannot go back to Iraq," Mohammad tells IPS through two interpreters, one of them a Kurd translating from the Kurdish language into Pushtu, and the other an Afghan translating from Pushtu into English.

Mohammad and his friends are just off the boat, literally. They have been placed in the tacky seaside hotel which has added an ‘e’ to ‘Cliff ‘ in apparent deference to France across the English Channel they have just crossed.

They emerged from the truck in which they had hid themselves, and gave themselves up as asylum seekers. Under new laws passed last month requiring asylum seekers to apply "as soon as reasonably practicable", this was their only hope.

But it remains a slender one. Home Office figures show that more than 3,000 Kurds had their final appeals for asylum rejected until October last year. The number of monthly rejections has risen since then, but only 35 Kurds are officially known to have gone back.

Kurds are being refused asylum under two provisions. One is the National Immigration and Asylum Act passed in November last year, which came into force January 8, requiring asylum seekers to apply straightaway on arrival. The second is a provision under which the Home Office will not consider asylum applications from nationals from a list of "safe" countries.

"The Home office has extended the list of countries we believe to be safe," a spokeswoman for the Home Office told IPS. In addition to the ten European Union accession countries (Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia) seven more have been added. These are Albania, Bulgaria, Jamaica, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, and Serbia and Montenegro.

That list does not include Iraq, but the Home Office in effect adds to the 17 "safe" countries at its discretion. The Home Office does not consider Iraq safe but a spokesman says "we are currently exploring options of returning Iraqi Kurds to the Kurdish autonomous zone." All of Iraq is expected to become safe for Kurds after a war in Iraq.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva has cautioned the British government against expelling Kurds. "There’s such a huge question mark hanging over the whole country," he said. "It would seem not a very opportune moment to send people back."

Mohammad and his friends do not believe Iraq is safe for them. "There is no way I can go back," says his friend. If their asylum application is rejected, they too intend to disappear into Britain rather than return.

Such disappearances are the norm among all those whose asylum appeals have been turned down, not just Kurds.

Home Office figures show that 329,714 refugees have been ordered out of Britain since 1990, but that the Home Office has no idea where they are, though most are likely to be in Britain.

This does not include hundreds of thousands who came in undetected, or others who have "overstayed their welcome, their permits or their visas," an immigration official says.

Home Office figures also show that more than 100,000 new asylum seekers came to Britain last year. Of them about 10,000 were granted asylum. Close to 8,000 are reported to have left, many of them deported. But there is no trace of the rest whose claims were rejected.

"If you make laws that difficult, people will want to just disappear," Marian Munt, councillor in Dover’s Priory ward which sees huge numbers of asylum seekers entering Britain, told IPS.

The new laws are expected to lead to more such disappearances. "Many of the asylum seekers who come here simply do not know the new English law, how can they," Tony Fuller from Migrant Helpline set up to assist asylum seekers in Dover told IPS. As a result, many who go on to London to apply are disqualified on application because they did not apply straightaway.

The new measures have been challenged in the courts in several cases on the grounds that they violate human rights. Home Office Minister Beverley Hughes says, however, that "we will vigorously defend these judicial reviews."

These measures had been taken, she said, "on top of the ground-breaking deal with the French to close Sangatte refugee camp, improve security around the Euro tunnel and have UK immigration controls on French soil."

Blair reaffirmed in the House of Commons Thursday that the number of asylum applicants will be halved by September. But police officers at Dover say there is no certainty that Blair will be able to deliver on that promise.

Kurds applying for asylum can be turned away, and so can nationals from the 17 "safe" countries. "But what happens if there is war in Iraq?" says Malcolm Bowler from the Dover police. "Can you stop people from coming and applying for asylum?" At present 6,000 to 7,000 a month are applying for political asylum in Britain.

Labour MP Louise Ellman says: "The Iraqis fled persecution and have been told they have to go back. There’s no way of getting them back and yet they are given no support here. In view of the international situation it seems to be a cruel irony."

Kurd refugees are facing refusal but not removal. Mohammad and his friends will face the question soon enough: Where do we go from here? Officially, nowhere. But that nowhere is likely to be somewhere in Britain.