Judge attacks deportation tactics (from BBC News)

A Home Office practice of deporting failed asylum seekers "at about midnight in the middle of the weekend" has been condemned by a senior judge.
The government was also criticised for putting deportees onto flights to their home countries at short notice.

This caused costly emergency late-night applications to High Court judges for injunctions, said Mr Justice Collins.

A Home Office spokesman said they always consulted the courts in "any reviews of our practices".

Sitting at the High Court in London, Mr Justice Collins said: "Frankly the court has got a little fed up with how the Home Office is putting these removals into practice."

'Not good enough'

His comments came as Home Office investigators continued to search for an Iraqi Kurd, who was unlawfully deported to Iraq, to bring him back to the UK.

Justice Collins questioned why it was necessary to remove people "about midnight in the middle of the weekend".

"It is not good enough," he said.

The judge called for talks between the judiciary and the Home Office so that "sensible arrangements" could be made.

We note the comments made by Justice Collins

Home Office spokesman

He had been told how the 29-year-old Iraqi man - referred to as "Mr A" - had been forced on to a plane at Stansted Airport shortly after midnight on Sunday 20 November.

Mr A had not been given removal directions in time for him to consult lawyers.

The government said they had not been handed to him because he was considered to be at risk of self-harm or suicide.

Counsel for Home Secretary Charles Clarke said "a regrettable mistake" had been made.

The deported man was among a group of 15 Iraqi Kurds flown to Iraq after the country was declared safe for their return.

An earlier attempt to fly out returnees ended in failure in August after legal challenges were mounted.

A Home Office spokesman said: "We note the comments made by Justice Collins at today's hearing.

"He accepted that if we had adhered to our normal practice in this case there would have been no issue.

"We will consult with the courts as we always do in relation to any review of our practices."

Join us in demanding the release of our activists from the capture of an armed gang in Iraq

Dear Friends

On December 10, an armed gang has attacked our office in Baghdad and kidnapped two of our political and human rights activists; Akram Faleh Khattab and Basim Ghamees. It is obvious that this gang belongs to the forces of Political Islam. Political Islam has a horrendous track record of violence, killings, beheadings, kidnappings, threats to human rights activists, and abduction of journalists and political activists.

The crime of Faleh Akram Khattab and Basim Ghamees in the eyes of such gangs is the defense of human rights from the violations of the militias and forces currently prevailing in Iraq. The two comrades were brave defenders of civility, equality, political freedom and secularism and they stood firmly by the oppressed. Our two comrades were interested in workers’ issues and adopted their demands and prevented their exploitation. Our two comrades are socialists.

The attack on our two activists and their abduction is not another act of terrorism that average citizens of Iraq are facing daily by the different gangs due to destruction of civil society and lack of security. Although happens within the same environment of insecurity, this attack is in fact political terrorism and bears the fingerprints of the Islamic movement which is opposed to secularists, human rights activists and socialists. Our comrades had previously been threatened by the same group.

We call upon you to support these two individuals and show your solidarity with them. We would like to invite you to join us in our campaign to release them immediately. We would also seize the opportunity to draw the attention to the serious human crisis of the Iraqi society which was caused by the US war and the turning loose of the dark anti-human forces in the society.

We call upon you to denounce the abduction of our comrades and adopt their case and join our efforts to release them from their captures and their safe return to their families and children. We also encourage you to run your own campaigns to defend the lives of these people and get their case across to the widest circles possible within your reach.

Your voices will definitely make a difference. Through our joint efforts we can stop further degradation of the human dignity and sanctity. Together we can make the world a better one.

Sincerely Yours,





Issam Shukri

For the Executive Committee of the Left Worker-communist Party of Iraq – LWPI

14-12-2005

Petition to release the CPT team in Iraq

Please click hereto sign a petiton calling for the release of the CPT team in Iraq.

Vote for OWFI (from John Pearson, SADP)

Vote for OWFI!
Comrades who were present at the SADP members' meeting in November 2004, when we were addressed by comrade Burhan Fatah of the Worker Communist Party of Iraq, will recall that one of the Iraqi organisations that
Burhan called for support for was the Organisation for Women's Freedom
in Iraq (OWFI), which is fighting to defend and advance women's rights
in the aftermath of the fall of the Ba'athist regime, the war and the
growth of Islamic fundamentalism.

OFWI receives support from the Netherlands based women's projects
funder, Mama Cash, and is a nominee for the "She Changes the World Award
2006". Comrades wishing to support OWFI can do so by visiting the site,
from where you can cast your vote :-
http://www.mamacash.nl/site/en/news/campaign88/award.php

In comradeship,
John