First Iraqis sent home

[Brännvin]

http://www.cphpost.dk/news/internati...sent-home.html

Six Iraqi men were sent back to Iraq yesterday as part of the first wave of controversial forced repatriations

Humanitarian organisations have joined together to issue a last-minute plea to the government not to forcibly repatriate more than 250 rejected Iraqi asylum seekers, after six of the group were returned to Iraq yesterday.

In an open letter to the integration minister, Amnesty International, the Danish United Nations Association, the Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims, Save the Children and the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network called on the government to stop further repatriations.
‘We are a number of human rights organisations that believe the forcible repatriation creates serious human rights problems. We are jointly appealing to Birthe Rønn Hornbech [integration minister] to give the rejected Iraqi asylum seekers residency on humanitarian grounds’.

The National Police said yesterday that the six men had been returned to Baghdad, where they have received money to continue their journey to their hometowns. In a statement that was released after the men’s return to Iraq, police said that the repatriation took place smoothly and calmly.

It was not only the media that was kept in the dark until after the event, but also the family of one of the men.

Mufsal al-Alji, 35, repatriated to Iraq after living in Denmark for eight years, was already in Baghdad when his family received a fax informing them of his return.

‘Mufsal has nothing to return home to; neither house nor family nor friends. And he only has enough money with him to last two days,’ said his cousin Yousef al-Badri to Politiken newspaper.

Eight men were initially arrested by police this week for repatriation, but two were not accepted by Iraqi authorities as their identification papers were forged. Police spokesman Hans Viggo Jensen said that more arrests with a view to repatriation would be carried out.

Since 2001, Denmark has given residence permits on humanitarian or special grounds to 4,134 Iraqis. The group of 265 Iraqis at the centre of this case have all had their asylum applications rejected by the Refugee Appeals Board.

A deal signed in May between Danish and Iraqi authorities allowed for the forcible repatriation of Iraqi citizens, but many of this group do not want to return due to safety fears or because their children have grown up in Denmark and have no connection to the Central Asian country.

Between 60 and 70 of the asylum seekers have taken refugee in Brorsons Church in Copenhagen to highlight their case and now asylum centres are clearing out their rooms because they have not returned to the centre as required.

The asylum seekers receive 645 kroner in spending money every two weeks, but have been afraid to return to the centre to collect it in case police are waiting for them. So far police have not approached the church to make arrests, but have not ruled it out in the future.

[Osweo]

"Happy Homecomings!

The six men returned to their dear motherland yesterday made a joint statement to the people of Denmark thanking them for the sanctuary granted them for the last eight years. "The hospitality of the Danish people will forever be fondly remembered in our hearts," said Ali Abu. "Denmark carried out her international duties in exemplary manner, but we are nevertheless delighted to be back on our own native soil." Refugee organisations report that remaining Iraqis in Copenhagen are itching to follow in their footsteps"

Oh, a man can dream, can't he?
Ungrateful bastards. They want towing out to sea in barges and sinking, French Revolution style...

And the cheek of the 'humanitarian organisations'!

YOU HAVE TO TAKE THESE PEOPLE IN, IT's YOUR INTERNATIONAL OBLIGATION!

Oh, very well.
...
It's not so bad now, they can go home.
BUT THEY'VE BECOME ACCUSTOMMED TO A MUCH HIGHER STANDARD OF LIFE NOW! HOW CAN YOU SEND THEM BACK???

Forever changing the goalposts. Sod em right off, say I. Surely there are millions of people in Europe who are getting sick of the ENTIRE idea of it all? Haven't the do-gooders shot themselves in the foot yet, having taken mile after mile, following the first inch they were given?

[Brännvin]

http://politiken.dk/indland/article740390.ece

Police Chief: Stop supporting rejected Iraqis

Activists, politicians and organisations are escalating the situation by supporting asylum-seekers, says deputy chief of police.

Giving support to rejected Iraqi asylum-seekers gives them false hopes and makes them hostages, according to Deputy Chief of Police Hans-Viggo Jensen who is calling for politicians, organisations and civilians who support the Iraqis, to stop their campaigns.
_________

I really feel for those iraqis refugees, but they have their homelands, and it's there that they must build their future, don't matter the actual situation...

[Osweo]

Good on Deputy Chief of Police Hans-Viggo Jensen for speaking up for common sense and the LAW! I hope he doesn't have career troubles for this.

[Brännvin]

http://www.cphpost.dk/news/local/87-...s-slammed.html

Several politicians, including a former prime minister, condemn police raid on Iraqi asylum seekers

Severe criticism is being directed at the Copenhagen police’s heavy-handed removal of 19 Iraqi asylum seekers from their shelter at Brorson’s Church in Nørrebro early this morning.

Former prime minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, who is currently the president of the Party of European Socialists, has blasted the police action.

‘It went beyond the bounds of common humanity and decency,’ he said.

Politicians at home have condemned the police action as well, most of the criticism coming from three of the four government opposition parties. But the Social Democrats, the nation’s largest opposition party and Rasmussen’s former party, supported the evictions.

While the former prime minister refused to get into the political aspects of the action, he told Ritzaus Bureau he was worried what the United Nations and humanitarian groups would think when they get news of the operation.

Video taken of the eviction included an officer beating a young woman numerous times with his truncheon and several other incidents of police using what could be interpreted as excessive or unnecessary force.
Many of the Iraqi men’s wives and children fled from the church during the action and their whereabouts are unknown.

Birthe Rønn Hornbech, the integration minister, told Berlingske Tidende newspaper that the police action was not initiated by the government.

‘The police have their own division to deal with immigration issues,’ Hornbech said.

She added that the Iraqis themselves were to blame for the situation.

'When Denmark made the agreement with Iraq to take the refugees, I appealed repeatedly to them through the media to go home willingly. I made it clear that if they had to be sent back forcefully then they wouldn’t have any influence on their own situation.’

An Iraqi delegation is reportedly on the way to Denmark to determine the identity of the men arrested at the church.