World
Rudaw's Alla Shally in front of Brook House immigration removal centre in London, on June 19, 2022. Photo: Rudaw/Screenshot
LONDON, United Kingdom - Two Kurdish nationals who had been issued with a notice be deported to Rwanda last week by the UK government before their flight was canceled, told Rudaw on Sunday of the horror they experienced, faced with the threat to be forcefully sent to a third country in the middle of Africa.
Thirty-one migrants were scheduled to be sent out to Rwanda but a UK-based charity late Monday said 24 of them had their tickets canceled. Only seven migrants, including two Iraqis, were set to fly out to the African nation, according to Care4Calais, before a European rights court issued a ruling to remove the remaining migrants from the flight shortly before its departure.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday ruled that one of the asylum seekers on the flight, an Iraqi man referred to as KN, was not to be removed from the country for at least three weeks until a final decision was made in his judicial review proceedings. The ruling paved the way for the lawyers of the six remaining asylum seekers to make similar claims, and they eventually succeed in removing their clients from the flight.
Rasti, 25, who refused to disclose his second name, told Rudaw's Alla Shally from his detention center over the phone that the situation inside the plane was "unbearable."
"We were forced onto the plane. We were all sad. [Some asylum seekers] started to cry. There were different nationalities among us including Vietnamese... They found it very difficult and unbearable. There were cries. The situation inside the plane caused an uproar. I personally could not take it and accept this situation. I was very, very depressed... This situation has made me never wish to see a plane from near or far, ever again," he said.
Aras Mohammed, another Kurdish national from Kirkuk who left the Kurdistan Region in 2004 in search of a better life, arrived in the UK by crossing the English Channel in May.
He says as soon as he landed at the shores of UK, he was arrested by British police and has remained in police custody for the past 43 days.
"I am sick and I have chosen to come to this country, to London, to Britain, to a country that is said to respect human rights," Mohammed said, terrified of being flown to Rwanda.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the Rwanda plan in April in a bid to deter illegal migrants from undertaking perilous crossing of the English Channel by small boats run by smugglers.
The plan has been widely criticized by human rights agencies, advocates, and the UN.
Comments
Rudaw moderates all comments submitted on our website. We welcome comments which are relevant to the article and encourage further discussion about the issues that matter to you. We also welcome constructive criticism about Rudaw.
To be approved for publication, however, your comments must meet our community guidelines.
We will not tolerate the following: profanity, threats, personal attacks, vulgarity, abuse (such as sexism, racism, homophobia or xenophobia), or commercial or personal promotion.
Comments that do not meet our guidelines will be rejected. Comments are not edited – they are either approved or rejected.
Post a comment