Richard Norton-Taylor
The Guardian, Friday July 25 2008
Eight Iraqi trade union leaders have been forcibly transferred from
Basra to Baghdad, where their lives are said to be at risk for
opposing a planned law in which control over oil exploration and
production would be placed in foreign hands.
The men, members of the Iraq Federation of Oil Unions, IFOU, have been
moved to the capital apparently on the personal orders of Hussain
al-Shahristani, the Iraqi oil minister, under anti-union legislation
left over from Saddam Hussein's rule. Greg Muttitt, co-director of
Platform, the human rights, environment and oil industry watchdog,
described the men's transfer as "extremely disturbing". He met
Shahristani a month ago to protest against the move.
The Iraqi oil minister said the eight men were involved with the
militias and in criminal activities, such as smuggling. But Muttitt
said: "There is absolutely no substance in these extremely serious
allegations and he offered no evidence."
Even if there was such evidence, it should be a matter for the Iraqi
judicial authorities and the courts, he added.
British officials in Baghdad and Basra have investigated the affair,
said Kim Howells, the foreign minister. In a letter, he said Britain
wanted to repeal Saddam's "restrictive" union laws and said Anne
Clywd, the prime minister's special envoy on human rights, had
recently "emphasised the fundamental need for free and fair trade
unions in Iraq".
However, he added: "It appears that the government of Iraq is tackling
illegal trade union activities with the South Oil Company."
John Hilary, executive director of War on Want, said: "The Iraqi
Federation of Oil Unions has been leading the opposition to the
sell-off of Iraq's oil and these members are clearly being targeted
for their political actions. We believe the British government should
work for the safety of Iraqi trade unionists, not be complicit in
their persecution."
In a letter to Howells, he said: "We would also like you to state
whether the British government in any way condones the transfer of
trade unionists into dangerous areas as a method of "tackling their
activities, whether legal or illegal".
Hassan Juma'a Awad, an IFOU spokesman, claimed the transfer was
ordered by Shahristani himself. "Those activists, through their hard
work, are well known for fighting corruption and corrupt-ministry
gangs in the oil sector," he insisted, adding that the transfer
amounted to a "human rights crime".
Wednesday, July 30
Wednesday, June 18
First International Labor Conference in Iraq
Message From the Preparatory Committee for the First International Labor Conference in Iraq
Dear Brothers and Sisters in the global struggle for workers’ rights, peace and justice:
Plans are underway to hold an International Labor Conference in Iraq in August 2008. We see this as an important and urgent step toward strengthening and unifying the labor movement in Iraq. Only through increased solidarity in Iraq, and with workers in the region and around the world can we hope to impact the fate not only of workers but of all Iraqis.
We call upon all unions and labor organizations around the world to support this conference morally and financially. Your expressions of solidarity with workers in Iraq in the past have given us a lifeline of hope. Your continued participation and support for this conference will buoy and strengthen the Iraqi labor movement. Only through unity can we hope to achieve democracy, freedom, security and prosperity.
Iraq's labor movement is a force for unifying our nation. A strong labor movement is also essential to the future of any democracy in Iraq. Labor unions transcend the sectarian conflict unleashed by the U.S.-led occupation. The invasion and occupation turned Iraq into an arena for settling international accounts and a base for exporting terrorism to the world. Workers represent the majority of Iraqis who do not have any interest in the ongoing terrorist violence. When sectarian gangs have attempted to transfer their conflicts into the ranks of workers, they have been rejected.
Iraq's labor unions are the glue that binds Iraqi people in the north, center and south. In some areas, the glue is strong, but in other areas of the country unions are isolated. Our goal with the August conference is to strengthen the ties between all worker organizations and focus on our common priorities. Those who feel isolated need to know that they have support from the international labor movement.
Iraqi workers need your support if we are to speak in one voice to reclaim our sovereignty.
Five years of invasion, war and occupation have brought nothing but death, destruction, misery and suffering to our people. Millions of Iraqis, the majority of them workers, have been killed, wounded and displaced inside and outside of Iraq as a result of the U.S.-led occupation.
In the name of our “liberation” the invaders have destroyed our nation's infrastructure, bombed our neighbourhoods, broken into our homes, traumatized our children, assaulted and arrested many of our family members and neighbours, permitted the looting of our national treasures, and turned nearly twenty percent of our people into refugees.
The occupation is determined to impose its economic and political will on Iraqis. The occupiers came with designs on our national riches - our oil - and schemes to privatize our industries, utilities, ports and public services and to put Iraq's national resources under the control of foreign corporations and international financial institutions.
All decisions, decrees and resolutions of the dictatorship have been nullified or changed except the ones that concern the working class. In fact, the occupation has added more unjust conditions to complement those created by the former regime.
In violation of every precept of internationally recognized labor rights, the occupation has banned trade unions in the public sector, privatized state-owned and run enterprises, intervened in workers’ affairs by proposing to recognize only one government-approved labor federation, and blocked any legislation that protects workers from poverty, disease and unjust employers. Our union offices have been raided. Union property has been seized and destroyed. Our bank accounts have been frozen.
In the last five years workers have been the target of terrorist acts in their workplaces and homes. Our leaders have been beaten, arrested, abducted and assassinated. Our rights as workers are routinely violated.
Now the U.S. administration attempts to provoke and threaten war with Iran. We condemn these actions and will struggle to prevent another disastrous war on Iran where the victims will always be the workers, their families and loved ones.
We believe that the workers of Iraq can form a strong front for social justice and peace if supported by our brothers and sisters in the region and around the world.
Please help us take a stand against this disastrous situation that will have catastrophic implications for the workers of Iraq and threatens the peace and security of the entire world.
We call on your support and ask for your presence at the conference.
We need your financial help to underwrite the high costs of this conference. We need to raise more than $150,000.
We want your participation. The conference will take place from August 22nd through to 24th, 2008 in the city of Erbil, a relatively stable area of Iraq in the north, in a secure location. Please let us know if your organization will send observers. Their safety can be assured.
In Solidarity
Dear Brothers and Sisters in the global struggle for workers’ rights, peace and justice:
Plans are underway to hold an International Labor Conference in Iraq in August 2008. We see this as an important and urgent step toward strengthening and unifying the labor movement in Iraq. Only through increased solidarity in Iraq, and with workers in the region and around the world can we hope to impact the fate not only of workers but of all Iraqis.
We call upon all unions and labor organizations around the world to support this conference morally and financially. Your expressions of solidarity with workers in Iraq in the past have given us a lifeline of hope. Your continued participation and support for this conference will buoy and strengthen the Iraqi labor movement. Only through unity can we hope to achieve democracy, freedom, security and prosperity.
Iraq's labor movement is a force for unifying our nation. A strong labor movement is also essential to the future of any democracy in Iraq. Labor unions transcend the sectarian conflict unleashed by the U.S.-led occupation. The invasion and occupation turned Iraq into an arena for settling international accounts and a base for exporting terrorism to the world. Workers represent the majority of Iraqis who do not have any interest in the ongoing terrorist violence. When sectarian gangs have attempted to transfer their conflicts into the ranks of workers, they have been rejected.
Iraq's labor unions are the glue that binds Iraqi people in the north, center and south. In some areas, the glue is strong, but in other areas of the country unions are isolated. Our goal with the August conference is to strengthen the ties between all worker organizations and focus on our common priorities. Those who feel isolated need to know that they have support from the international labor movement.
Iraqi workers need your support if we are to speak in one voice to reclaim our sovereignty.
Five years of invasion, war and occupation have brought nothing but death, destruction, misery and suffering to our people. Millions of Iraqis, the majority of them workers, have been killed, wounded and displaced inside and outside of Iraq as a result of the U.S.-led occupation.
In the name of our “liberation” the invaders have destroyed our nation's infrastructure, bombed our neighbourhoods, broken into our homes, traumatized our children, assaulted and arrested many of our family members and neighbours, permitted the looting of our national treasures, and turned nearly twenty percent of our people into refugees.
The occupation is determined to impose its economic and political will on Iraqis. The occupiers came with designs on our national riches - our oil - and schemes to privatize our industries, utilities, ports and public services and to put Iraq's national resources under the control of foreign corporations and international financial institutions.
All decisions, decrees and resolutions of the dictatorship have been nullified or changed except the ones that concern the working class. In fact, the occupation has added more unjust conditions to complement those created by the former regime.
In violation of every precept of internationally recognized labor rights, the occupation has banned trade unions in the public sector, privatized state-owned and run enterprises, intervened in workers’ affairs by proposing to recognize only one government-approved labor federation, and blocked any legislation that protects workers from poverty, disease and unjust employers. Our union offices have been raided. Union property has been seized and destroyed. Our bank accounts have been frozen.
In the last five years workers have been the target of terrorist acts in their workplaces and homes. Our leaders have been beaten, arrested, abducted and assassinated. Our rights as workers are routinely violated.
Now the U.S. administration attempts to provoke and threaten war with Iran. We condemn these actions and will struggle to prevent another disastrous war on Iran where the victims will always be the workers, their families and loved ones.
We believe that the workers of Iraq can form a strong front for social justice and peace if supported by our brothers and sisters in the region and around the world.
Please help us take a stand against this disastrous situation that will have catastrophic implications for the workers of Iraq and threatens the peace and security of the entire world.
We call on your support and ask for your presence at the conference.
We need your financial help to underwrite the high costs of this conference. We need to raise more than $150,000.
We want your participation. The conference will take place from August 22nd through to 24th, 2008 in the city of Erbil, a relatively stable area of Iraq in the north, in a secure location. Please let us know if your organization will send observers. Their safety can be assured.
In Solidarity
Monday, June 2
Iraqi oil union under attack
The Iraqi Oil Minister, Hussein Al-Shahirstani, has ordered the transfer
of eight Oil Union activists. They used to work at the oil refineries in
the south. This act reflects the minister's anti-union policy, and lack
of respect for unions and union activists in the oil sector. Those
activists, through their hard work, are well known for fighting
corruption and corrupt-ministry gangs in the oil sector.
They have been transferred to Baghdad Al-Dorah neighborhood (known for
worsening security situation, and high level of sectarian killings). In
the context of Iraqi security situation, such a transfer is rightfully
regarded as human rights crime.
We call upon all people of good will in the world to take a stand to
denounce these despicable and criminal acts by the Iraqi Oil Ministry
against trade unions and their activists. The trade unions have been
reestablished and revitalized through the hard work of union activists
without any protection from the state, which keeps bragging about
democracy. [The Maliki government, taking its lead from the U.S.
Occupation Authority, continues to enforce the 1987 Saddam Hussein labor
code that prohibits unions and bargaining for workers in the oil sector
and all other public enterprises, which constitute 80% of all Iraqi jobs.]
This act is a clear evidence that the Iraqi state seeks to liquidate
trade unions in this important Iraqi economic sector, oil. It is
important to note that the south is the main source of oil in Iraq. The
oil sector there employs more than 39,000 workers. The Iraqi state has
no intention of allowing an Oil Trade Union in that sector because it
represents a threat to its authority.
We call upon you from all parts of the world to stand with us, for the
sake of labour and workers interests.
Respectfully,
Hassan Juma'a Awad, President
Iraq Federation of Oil Unions
of eight Oil Union activists. They used to work at the oil refineries in
the south. This act reflects the minister's anti-union policy, and lack
of respect for unions and union activists in the oil sector. Those
activists, through their hard work, are well known for fighting
corruption and corrupt-ministry gangs in the oil sector.
They have been transferred to Baghdad Al-Dorah neighborhood (known for
worsening security situation, and high level of sectarian killings). In
the context of Iraqi security situation, such a transfer is rightfully
regarded as human rights crime.
We call upon all people of good will in the world to take a stand to
denounce these despicable and criminal acts by the Iraqi Oil Ministry
against trade unions and their activists. The trade unions have been
reestablished and revitalized through the hard work of union activists
without any protection from the state, which keeps bragging about
democracy. [The Maliki government, taking its lead from the U.S.
Occupation Authority, continues to enforce the 1987 Saddam Hussein labor
code that prohibits unions and bargaining for workers in the oil sector
and all other public enterprises, which constitute 80% of all Iraqi jobs.]
This act is a clear evidence that the Iraqi state seeks to liquidate
trade unions in this important Iraqi economic sector, oil. It is
important to note that the south is the main source of oil in Iraq. The
oil sector there employs more than 39,000 workers. The Iraqi state has
no intention of allowing an Oil Trade Union in that sector because it
represents a threat to its authority.
We call upon you from all parts of the world to stand with us, for the
sake of labour and workers interests.
Respectfully,
Hassan Juma'a Awad, President
Iraq Federation of Oil Unions
Monday, May 26
Attack and arrest of twelve Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane workers
According to reports received from Shush city, the workers of the Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Company have once again begun demonstrating in front of the Governor General's office.
This morning a large number of workers went to the Governor General's office in Shush and began demonstrating. At present their number is growing by the minute. The protesting workers are chanting slogans like: "Incompetent Governor, resign, resign", "Police force, shame, shame", "Monthly pay is our absolute right", "A livelihood and a life are our absolute right", "The workers are prepared to die but won't accept hardship".
An hour ago the security forces and the special guard attacked the protesting workers in front of the Governor General's office in Shush. They arrested twelve workers and took them to an undisclosed location. They behaved in a barbaric way while arresting them. Right now the workers are present in the city and are determined to continue with their protests until their demands have been met.
The special guard, the police and security forces have once again begun patrolling the city in their vehicles and are trying to create an atmosphere of intimidation and fear by their manoeuvres.
From Iranian Workers' Solidarity Network
This morning a large number of workers went to the Governor General's office in Shush and began demonstrating. At present their number is growing by the minute. The protesting workers are chanting slogans like: "Incompetent Governor, resign, resign", "Police force, shame, shame", "Monthly pay is our absolute right", "A livelihood and a life are our absolute right", "The workers are prepared to die but won't accept hardship".
An hour ago the security forces and the special guard attacked the protesting workers in front of the Governor General's office in Shush. They arrested twelve workers and took them to an undisclosed location. They behaved in a barbaric way while arresting them. Right now the workers are present in the city and are determined to continue with their protests until their demands have been met.
The special guard, the police and security forces have once again begun patrolling the city in their vehicles and are trying to create an atmosphere of intimidation and fear by their manoeuvres.
From Iranian Workers' Solidarity Network
Thursday, May 22
Mehdi Kazemi granted asylum
On Monday Mehdi Kazemi, the Iranian gay teenager threatened with deportation back to Iran (where his boyfriend was executed) was granted unconditional asylum in the United Kingdom.
This is clearly excellent news for all of those solidarity activists who campaigned against his deportation and against racist and homophobic immigration laws. It is a slap in the face to the homophobic Iranian regime.
Unfortunately, the government has not taken any broader stance in favour of the right to asylum for persecuted LGBT people. Commenting on Mehdi's case the Home Office stated "We keep cases under review where circumstances have changed, and it has been decided that Mr. Kazemi should be granted leave to remain in the UK based on the particular facts of this case".
We will continue to fight against all deportations and in favour of the right to asylum.
This is clearly excellent news for all of those solidarity activists who campaigned against his deportation and against racist and homophobic immigration laws. It is a slap in the face to the homophobic Iranian regime.
Unfortunately, the government has not taken any broader stance in favour of the right to asylum for persecuted LGBT people. Commenting on Mehdi's case the Home Office stated "We keep cases under review where circumstances have changed, and it has been decided that Mr. Kazemi should be granted leave to remain in the UK based on the particular facts of this case".
We will continue to fight against all deportations and in favour of the right to asylum.
Wednesday, May 21
Effective martial law in Shush city and widespread arrest of Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane workers
Last night crowds of special guard units from the cities of Khoramabad, Ahvaz and Dezful poured into Shush. These forces came into the city in the coaches and pickup trucks of the special guard units and have taken positions in various parts of the city, including the city centre, the bazaar, near the Governor General's office and the main streets and thoroughfares of the city. The special guard units have also taken positions on roads entering the city, and as soon as they notice any workers trying to enter the city, they arrest them and take them to an undisclosed place.
From this morning the Information Ministry and police forces began the widespread arrest of workers throughout the city. Until now dozens of workers have been arrested. These include Rahim Besagh, Kourosh Bahmani from the grinding and polishing section of the company, Mehran Akbari and Ali Shahbazi.
At present there is a chaotic situation in the city. Despite this atmosphere of intimidation and fear, the workers are still in the city and plan to continue with their demonstrations until their demands have been met.
According to reliable information that has reached the workers, the Governor General of Shush has issued the order for smashing the workers' protests and is personally supervising the way this repression is being carried out.
The demands of the Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane workers are as follows:
* Payment of three months' unpaid wages.
* An end to the gathering of legal dossiers and summoning workers to court.
* Sacking the general manager of the company, a mollah named Yaghoob Shafiee, and the whole management committee.
* Sacking the security chief of the company, a person named Zibdari, who has had a direct role in the beating, spying and gathering of dossiers on workers.
We must keep up the pressure on the management of this state-owned company and the Iranian government to stop the repression, to accept all the workers' demands and to drop all charges against them.
[Source: Human Rights and Democracy Activists in Iran]
From this morning the Information Ministry and police forces began the widespread arrest of workers throughout the city. Until now dozens of workers have been arrested. These include Rahim Besagh, Kourosh Bahmani from the grinding and polishing section of the company, Mehran Akbari and Ali Shahbazi.
At present there is a chaotic situation in the city. Despite this atmosphere of intimidation and fear, the workers are still in the city and plan to continue with their demonstrations until their demands have been met.
According to reliable information that has reached the workers, the Governor General of Shush has issued the order for smashing the workers' protests and is personally supervising the way this repression is being carried out.
The demands of the Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane workers are as follows:
* Payment of three months' unpaid wages.
* An end to the gathering of legal dossiers and summoning workers to court.
* Sacking the general manager of the company, a mollah named Yaghoob Shafiee, and the whole management committee.
* Sacking the security chief of the company, a person named Zibdari, who has had a direct role in the beating, spying and gathering of dossiers on workers.
We must keep up the pressure on the management of this state-owned company and the Iranian government to stop the repression, to accept all the workers' demands and to drop all charges against them.
[Source: Human Rights and Democracy Activists in Iran]
Monday, May 12
Iraqi port workers' message of solidarity with West Coast dockers
On May 1st port workers in Umm Qasr staged a strike against the occupation of Iraq in unison with dock workers in the United States. Here is their solidarity statement:
From: The General Union of Port Workers in Iraq
To: The International Longshore and Warehouse Union in the United States
Dear Brothers and Sisters of ILWU in California:
The courageous decision you made to carry out a strike on May Day to protest against the war and occupation of Iraq advances our struggle against occupation to bring a better future for us and for the rest of the world as well.
We are certain that a better world will only be created by the workers and what you are doing is an example and proof of what we say. The labor movement is the only element in the society that is able to change the political equations for the benefit of mankind. We in Iraq are looking up to you and support you until the victory over the US administration's barbarism is achieved.
Over the past five years the sectarian gangs who are the product of the occupation, have been trying to transfer their conflicts into our ranks. Targeting workers, including their residential and shopping areas, indiscriminately using all sorts of explosive devices, mortar shells, and random shooting, were part of a bigger scheme that was aiming to tear up the society but they miserably failed to achieve their hellish goal. We are struggling today to defeat both the occupation and sectarian militias' agenda.
The pro-occupation government has been attempting to intervene into the workers affairs by imposing a single government-certified labor union. Furthermore it has been promoting privatization and an oil and gas law to use the occupation against the interests of the workers.
We the port workers view that our interests are inseparable from the interests of workers in Iraq and the world; therefore we are determined to continue our struggle to improve the living conditions of the workers and overpower all plots of the occupation, its economic and political projects.
Let us hold hands for the victory of our struggle.
Long live the port workers in California!
Long live May Day!
Long live International solidarity!
The General Union of Port Workers in Iraq, an affiliate of the General Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq (GFWCUI)
From: The General Union of Port Workers in Iraq
To: The International Longshore and Warehouse Union in the United States
Dear Brothers and Sisters of ILWU in California:
The courageous decision you made to carry out a strike on May Day to protest against the war and occupation of Iraq advances our struggle against occupation to bring a better future for us and for the rest of the world as well.
We are certain that a better world will only be created by the workers and what you are doing is an example and proof of what we say. The labor movement is the only element in the society that is able to change the political equations for the benefit of mankind. We in Iraq are looking up to you and support you until the victory over the US administration's barbarism is achieved.
Over the past five years the sectarian gangs who are the product of the occupation, have been trying to transfer their conflicts into our ranks. Targeting workers, including their residential and shopping areas, indiscriminately using all sorts of explosive devices, mortar shells, and random shooting, were part of a bigger scheme that was aiming to tear up the society but they miserably failed to achieve their hellish goal. We are struggling today to defeat both the occupation and sectarian militias' agenda.
The pro-occupation government has been attempting to intervene into the workers affairs by imposing a single government-certified labor union. Furthermore it has been promoting privatization and an oil and gas law to use the occupation against the interests of the workers.
We the port workers view that our interests are inseparable from the interests of workers in Iraq and the world; therefore we are determined to continue our struggle to improve the living conditions of the workers and overpower all plots of the occupation, its economic and political projects.
Let us hold hands for the victory of our struggle.
Long live the port workers in California!
Long live May Day!
Long live International solidarity!
The General Union of Port Workers in Iraq, an affiliate of the General Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq (GFWCUI)
An Injury to One is an Injury to All – Stop the Deportation of Mohammad Hussain
Many of you will know Mohammad Hussain from Doncaster. He is a big man with a big heart. Mohammad was one of the organisers and stewards on the 3 Day Dignity Not Detention march last October.The march ended with a protest outside Lindholme detention centre. Now Mohammad is inside Lindholme. He is threatened with deportation to Irbil in Iraqi Kurdistan this Wednesday 14th May from Heathrow Airport at 17.05.
Mohammad has stated that, if he is deported to Iraqi Kurdistan, “my life would be in serious danger”. He left Iraqi Kurdistan in 1999 because of threats made against him by the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP). The KDP and its security apparatus now controls much of Iraqi Kurdistan and runs the city of Irbil – the proposed location for Mohammad’s deportation.
Since this time, persecution of political opponents of the KDP has increased, according to reports from Amnesty International, the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees and the UNHCR.
There is ample evidence that political opponents of the Kurdish Democratic Party have faced ill-treatment, imprisonment and grievous violence from the party’s security service upon their forced return to KDP-controlled Irbil. Following the forced deportation of 60 Iraqi Kurds from the UK to Irbil in February 2008 the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees reported that guards from the Kurdish Regional Government “knew nothing of human rights”.
Mr Hussain’s deportation would not just be a grave threat to his life. It would be a loss to Doncaster and South Yorkshire. Apart from Mohammad’s role in South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG) and his active defence of other Iraqi Kurds threatened with deportation, he has played an important role in community life in Doncaster. He is Treasurer of the Doncaster Focus Group (a co-ordinating group of refugee and migrant volunteers), an active volunteer with the Northern Refugee Centre and one of the best known and loved members of the Kurdish community in South Yorkshire.
What You Can Do to Help
1.Send urgent faxes/emails immediately to Rt. Hon. Jacqui Smith, Secretary of State for the Home Office asking that Mohammad Hussain be granted protection in the UK. Model letter to Secretary of State is attached or you can copy/amend/write your own version (if you do so, please remember to include the HO ref H1028720).
Fax: 020 7035 3262 (00 44 20 7035 3262 if you are faxing from outside UK)
Email Jacqui Smith: smithjj@parliament.uk
Write to Jacqui Smith: Rt Hon Jacqui Smith MP, Secretary of State for the Home Office, 3rd Floor, Peel Buildings, 2 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DF
2. Send urgent faxes/emails immediately to Rosie Winterton MP for Doncaster Central Constituency. Model letter to Secretary of State is attached or you can copy/amend/write your own version (if you do so, please remember to include the HO ref H1028720).
Parliamentary Office:
Rt Hon Rosie Winterton MP
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
Tel. 0207 219 0925
Fax: 0207 219 2811
Constituency office:
Room 9
The Trades and Labour Club
115 St Sepulchre Gate West
Doncaster
DN1 3AH
Tel: 01302 326297
Fax: 01302 342921
Email: wintertonr@parliament.uk
Please notify the campaign of any faxes/emails sent to Jacqui Smith or Rosie Winterton at dignitynotdetention@yahoo.co.uk or 07969 156 082
3. Copy and distribute the campaign leaflet for Mohammad: see attachment. Contact Graeme Huston, the editor of Doncaster Free Press: graeme.huston@doncastertoday.co.uk or Telephone : 01302 819111 or Fax : 01302 348523. Contact the Doncaster Star newspaper: Star Newsdesk News Editor, Telephone : 0114 276 7676 or email: starnews@sheffieldnewspapers.co.uk
Stuart Crosthwaite, SYMAAG Secretary
Contact the South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG) at dignitynotdetention@yahoo.co.uk
Mohammad has stated that, if he is deported to Iraqi Kurdistan, “my life would be in serious danger”. He left Iraqi Kurdistan in 1999 because of threats made against him by the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP). The KDP and its security apparatus now controls much of Iraqi Kurdistan and runs the city of Irbil – the proposed location for Mohammad’s deportation.
Since this time, persecution of political opponents of the KDP has increased, according to reports from Amnesty International, the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees and the UNHCR.
There is ample evidence that political opponents of the Kurdish Democratic Party have faced ill-treatment, imprisonment and grievous violence from the party’s security service upon their forced return to KDP-controlled Irbil. Following the forced deportation of 60 Iraqi Kurds from the UK to Irbil in February 2008 the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees reported that guards from the Kurdish Regional Government “knew nothing of human rights”.
Mr Hussain’s deportation would not just be a grave threat to his life. It would be a loss to Doncaster and South Yorkshire. Apart from Mohammad’s role in South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG) and his active defence of other Iraqi Kurds threatened with deportation, he has played an important role in community life in Doncaster. He is Treasurer of the Doncaster Focus Group (a co-ordinating group of refugee and migrant volunteers), an active volunteer with the Northern Refugee Centre and one of the best known and loved members of the Kurdish community in South Yorkshire.
What You Can Do to Help
1.Send urgent faxes/emails immediately to Rt. Hon. Jacqui Smith, Secretary of State for the Home Office asking that Mohammad Hussain be granted protection in the UK. Model letter to Secretary of State is attached or you can copy/amend/write your own version (if you do so, please remember to include the HO ref H1028720).
Fax: 020 7035 3262 (00 44 20 7035 3262 if you are faxing from outside UK)
Email Jacqui Smith: smithjj@parliament.uk
Write to Jacqui Smith: Rt Hon Jacqui Smith MP, Secretary of State for the Home Office, 3rd Floor, Peel Buildings, 2 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DF
2. Send urgent faxes/emails immediately to Rosie Winterton MP for Doncaster Central Constituency. Model letter to Secretary of State is attached or you can copy/amend/write your own version (if you do so, please remember to include the HO ref H1028720).
Parliamentary Office:
Rt Hon Rosie Winterton MP
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
Tel. 0207 219 0925
Fax: 0207 219 2811
Constituency office:
Room 9
The Trades and Labour Club
115 St Sepulchre Gate West
Doncaster
DN1 3AH
Tel: 01302 326297
Fax: 01302 342921
Email: wintertonr@parliament.uk
Please notify the campaign of any faxes/emails sent to Jacqui Smith or Rosie Winterton at dignitynotdetention@yahoo.co.uk or 07969 156 082
3. Copy and distribute the campaign leaflet for Mohammad: see attachment. Contact Graeme Huston, the editor of Doncaster Free Press: graeme.huston@doncastertoday.co.uk or Telephone : 01302 819111 or Fax : 01302 348523. Contact the Doncaster Star newspaper: Star Newsdesk News Editor, Telephone : 0114 276 7676 or email: starnews@sheffieldnewspapers.co.uk
Stuart Crosthwaite, SYMAAG Secretary
Contact the South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG) at dignitynotdetention@yahoo.co.uk
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