UUI, Alm.del - 2010-11 (1. samling) - Bilag 49: Henvendelse af 18/11-10 fra Amnesty International vedr. udvisninger til Irak og Dublin-overførelser til Grækenland

Amnesty International calls on European governments to immediately stop forcible returns tothe Iraq provinces of Ninewa (Mosul), Kirkuk, Diyala, Salah al-Din, Baghdad, and to otherparticularly dangerous areas such as parts of Al Anbar province.A series of recent attacks causing the deaths of more than 150 people and injuries tohundreds of others in the last two weeks have demonstrated yet again the dangerous securityconditions that prevail in Baghdad and many other parts of Iraq.On 29 October 2010, some 25 people were killed in a café in the Dor Mandila area of Diyalaprovince, which is mainly inhabited by Feily Kurds; on 31 October, more than 50 people werekilled after Sunni insurgents seized control of a church in Baghdad holding hostage and thenkilling worshippers in a clearly sectarian attack; on 2 November, more than 60 people werekilled in a series of attacks targeting predominantly Shi’a neighbourhoods in Baghdad; on 8November, some 20 people were killed in attacks in Basra, Najaf and Kerbela.In all of these attacks, most of those killed were civilians, many of whom appear to have beentargeted on account of their religious faith or affiliation.Security conditions have deteriorated in recent months as the last US combat troops havebeen withdrawn (thousands of other US troops remain in Iraq in a training and support rolewith Iraqi security forces) and there has been a serious political vacuum due to the failure ofIraqi political parties to agree a new government following national parliamentary elections inMarch 2010. These reflected and exacerbated the sectarian divide and failed to produce aclear winner; since then negotiations towards the formation of a new government havecontinued between the various political parties without achieving agreement. Any newgovernment that perpetuates current sectarian divisions is likely to face further opposition andviolence.The latest dramatic upsurge in violence shows that Iraq is still a very dangerous place in whicharmed groups, in particular al-Qa’ida in Iraq and its allies, are capable of inflicting very highnumbers of casualties through suicide and other bomb attacks at will and virtually anywhere inthe country. In a further disturbing development, scores of former members of the so-calledAwakening Councils, Sunni Muslim militia who helped the US forces in their fight against al-Qa’ida in Iraq, are reported to have been joining that armed group in recent months after itissued threats against them and their families.Since 2009, at least five European countries — Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden,and the United Kingdom — have forcibly returned to Iraq hundreds of Iraqis, and possiblysome non-Iraqi nationals, whose asylum claims had been dismissed. In the month ofSeptember 2010 alone, more than 150 individuals were returned to Iraq from the above-mentioned five European countries. Forced returns have taken place on flights organized byone European state alone or on joint charter flight operations in which several European stateshave participated. Most removals have taken place in breach of clear guidelines for assessing

the international protection needs of Iraqi asylum-seekers from the UN Refugee Agency(UNHCR) issued in April 2009. The UNHCR has repeatedly reiterated the ongoing validity ofits Iraq eligibility guidelines, including as recently as September 2010, calling on states not toforcibly remove anyone to the five provinces of Ninewa (Mosul), Kirkuk, Salah al-Din, Diyalaand Baghdad.Further, on 20 October 2010, during a visit to the Netherlands, Daniel Endres, UNHCR’srepresentative in Iraq, reiterated the agency’s objection to the continuing forced returns ofIraqis from European countries. He was reported to have said:There are about 1000 security incidents a month, that is, more than 30 a day. Andthat means rockets, bombs, mainly in the centre of the country. Every Iraqi is -- oneway or another -- affected by these incidents because they happen almost everywhere.He added that UNHCR cannot guarantee the safety of anyone who is returned to Iraq: “Wehave asked all governments not to deport Iraqis in general, and especially not to these areas[Iraq's five most dangerous provinces].”UNHCR has also reiterated its concern that these forcible removals could send a negativesignal to states neighbouring Iraq who continue to host far greater numbers of refugees fromIraq, despite the serious challenges this poses and the impact on their national resources.Despite this, government authorities in a number of Western European countries, includingDenmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK, have continued to maintain that thesecurity situation in Iraq is “sufficiently safe” to continue enforcing returns of Iraqis whoseasylum claims have been dismissed. As a result, on 22 September 2010, for example, over 50Iraqis were forcibly returned to Baghdad on a charter flight organized jointly by Dutch,Swedish, Norwegian and UK authorities.Only recently, the Dutch authorities have agreed to temporarily defer the forcible removal ofabout 15 Iraqis on a flight that was scheduled to leave the Netherlands for Baghdad, on 3November. The temporary deferral follows an order of interim measures by the European Courtof Human Rights on 22 October 2010 asking the Dutch authorities to refrain from returning toBaghdad any Iraqi who challenges his or her return. The Court wrote to the Dutch governmenton 22 October stating that its decision had been taken:in view of the increasing number of Rule 39 requests [i.e. for interim measures] madeby applicants seeking to prevent their return to Baghdad on single or joint charterflights from European countries and the reported recent deterioration in the securitysituation in Baghdad and other governorates. Due note was taken of the UNHCR’scontinuing concern as to the safety of returning Iraqi citizens to Baghdad and certainother governorates of Iraq.The Court stated that it would consider it appropriate to apply such measures to “any Iraqichallenging his or her return from the Netherlands to Baghdad”. The Court has addressedsimilar requests to the Swedish and UK authorities.Amnesty International believes that it is not safe to forcibly remove anyone to the Iraqprovinces of Ninewa (Mosul), Kirkuk, Diyala, Salah al-Din, Baghdad, and to other particularlydangerous areas such as parts of Al Anbar province. The organization considers that anyonewhom the host countries are planning on removing to any the above-mentioned areas of Iraq,whether the individuals concerned originate from those areas or not, should be granted asylumor alternative forms of protection. In those regions of Iraq, as reiterated by the UNHCR, seriousrisks, including the ongoing indiscriminate threats to life, physical integrity or personalfreedom arising from violence or events seriously disturbing public order are all valid groundsfor international protection.

Further, when European countries are envisaging removing Iraqis to other areas of Iraq,Amnesty International considers that, in any event, no forcible removals should take placeunless and until an individual assessment has been carried out indicating that it would be safeto return the individual in question. Any such assessment should consider, in particular, theviability and safety of the route and method of return within Iraq. Individual safety en routefrom Baghdad to the destination envisaged by the host country as the eventual place ofresidence in Iraq should be carefully considered.Amnesty International calls on European states to grant protection when people would face areal risk of persecution or serious harm en route within Iraq, including a “serious andindividual threat to a civilian’s life or person by reason of indiscriminate violence in situationsof international or internal armed conflict”Further, Amnesty International calls on European states to desist from forcibly removingindividuals on the basis that they consider the Kurdistan Region of Iraq as constituting aninternal flight alternative for all Iraqis. Moreover, European states should respect the positionof the Kurdistan Regional Government which has explicitly stated it is opposed to any forciblereturns and will only accept people who choose to go back voluntarily.Amnesty International calls on European states to ensure that no individual is forcibly removedunless and until in each and every case the authorities in the host country can demonstratethat removals will be conducted in safety and dignity and in a rights-respecting manner; andthat the individuals concerned will be reintegrated into Iraqi society and their removals aretruly sustainable. This would generally require that the person who is to be removed originatesfrom or has a viable social network in the area where the host country envisages that theindividual concerned will eventually reside; thus the individual would be able to establishhimself or herself there and removal would therefore not be unreasonable.Amnesty International reminds European states that they are bound by the principle ofnon-refoulement,set out in, amongst others, the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, the EuropeanConvention on Human Rights, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union andother EU law. Thenon-refoulementprinciple obliges states not to return or otherwise removepeople to any country or territory where they would face a real risk of persecution or seriousharm, including grave human rights abuses such as indiscriminate threats to life, physicalintegrity or freedom arising from generalized violence.In April 2010, Amnesty International issued a report (Iraq:Civilians under fire,AI Index:14/002/2010) highlighting the risks to people returned involuntarily to Iraq, who are amongthose particularly vulnerable to be targeted with violence.Amnesty International and the UNHCR have spoken to a number of Iraqis after they wereforcibly returned from European states to Iraq in recent months and who now feared for theirsafety. Amnesty International conducted phone interviews with eight of the more than 30Iraqis forcibly returned on 30 March 2010 from the Netherlands to Baghdad, including anumber of individuals from Baghdad who have not been able to return to their homes and who,out of fear, have been frequently moving from place to place within the city. Other returnees,who did not hail from Baghdad, told Amnesty International that they were now stranded there,as it was unsafe for them to travel onward to their home province.At least two men forcibly returned from the Netherlands in March 2010 originated from theprovince of Nineva (Mosul) and both reported that they and their families had been threatenedby armed groups with violence. One of them is a 23-year-old Sunni Arab who told AmnestyInternational that after his forcible removal from the Netherlands he had no means to liveelsewhere in the country and therefore ended up returning to live with relatives in Mosuldespite fearing for his own safety there. He also reported that he and his family remained atrisk of violence, and that one of his brothers had been shot dead by an armed group in Mosulin early 2010. The other is a 22-year-old Shia Turkoman who said he feared returning to his

home in Tal Afar, a mainly Turkoman city where hundreds of civilians have been killed insectarian and other politically-motivated violence in recent years. For example on 14 May2010, 25 people were killed when suicide bombers targeted a football field in a Shianeighbourhood of Tal Afar.New evidence of the violent attacks against civilians by armed groups and security forcesinvolved in the ongoing armed conflict in Iraq was recently published by the Wikileaksorganization. The documents covering incidents up to the end of 2009 included a reference toa video obtained by US troops in December 2009 showing an incident in Tal Afar where Iraqisoldiers took a handcuffed detainee out into the street and shot him dead (The Guardian: Iraqwar logs: Video shows detainee executed by Iraqi soldiers, 22 October 2010).UNHCR has been able to establish that at least several among a group of about 61 Iraqis whowere returned on 1 September 2010 from Sweden, Denmark, Norway and the United Kingdomwere from particularly dangerous provinces, including Baghdad and Mosul (UNHCR: UNHCRconcerned at continuing deportations of Iraqis from Europe, 3 September 2010). One personidentified by UNHCR was a Christian from Mosul, one of the most dangerous locations in thecountry where religious minorities – including Christians – remain at high risk of being targetedby armed groups. For example, in the run-up to the parliamentary elections in March 2010many Christians fled Mosul where in February 2010 alone at least eight Christians were killed(For more details on the targeting of minorities in Iraq see:Amnesty International: Iraq:Civilians under fire,AI Index: 14/002/2010). Also among a group of about 56 Iraqis who werereturned on 22 September at least nine individuals originated from particularly dangerousprovinces of Iraq.Background informationHundreds of civilians are still being killed or maimed every month in Iraq, notwithstanding theoverall reduction in the civilian death-toll seen since 2008. Perpetrators of human rightsabuses in Iraq include armed groups, militias, security forces and members of tribes. Therecent publication of US secret and confidential files on the situation in Iraq by Wikileaks hasdemonstrated again that civilians are the main victims of the ongoing violence in the country.A recent survey carried out by the UNHCR with about 2300 Iraqis who voluntarily returned toIraq in recent years found that physical insecurity, economic hardship and a lack of basicpublic services had led the majority to regret their decision to return. Interviewees pointed toinstances of explosions, harassment, military operations and kidnapping occurring in theirareas of return as leading to insecurity and personal safety concerns. (UNHCR: UNHCR poll:Iraqi refugees regret returning to Iraq, amid insecurity, 19 October 2010)Some Iraqis forcibly removed from Europe have alleged that they were ill-treated during theirremoval; there have also been credible reports of Iraqis being detained on arrival at Baghdadairport, as well as complaints that people have been beaten, deprived of food and threatenedby Iraqi security officials whilst in detention after their forcible removal to Iraq.In practice, the number of Iraqi refugees seeking asylum in European states is relatively smallcompared to the numbers of those currently residing in states neighbouring Iraq. Syria hosts byfar the greatest number of refugees from Iraq, followed by Jordan and other Middle Easternstates.Amnesty International is concerned that the increasing pattern of forcible returns from theEuropean states sets a very poor example to these Middle Eastern states, whose resources havebeen stretched by the influx of people fleeing from Iraq, and may contribute to an overallweakening of the international system of refugee protection.End/