IRR News reports on a recent deportation, which resulted in a Kurdish man allegedly having his nose broken by a guard from the private company Tascor (which is contracted to carry out deportations).
Omer Kader was being deported to Northern Iraq on a Royal Jordanian Airlines flight on Friday 7 June 2013. He has reported the incident to the UK-based International Federation of Iraqi Refugees (IFIR), which is pursuing a complaint on his behalf. He told them: ‘I was removed from Brook House detention centre they put me in the van with no explanation of where they were taking me. I was only informed when the van stopped that they told me we will send you back to Iraq. I told them I am not going back because I have wife and one child in the UK. They then put restraining straps my legs. I protested and said I didn’t want to leave. At this point one of the security guards became very angry. He first kicked me in the leg and boxed my nose so hard that he broke my nose. Blood spattered all over my clothes. Following this attack I was handcuffed and put on the plane by three security guards, leaving behind me a trail of blood. The security guard who assaulted me travelled with me to Iraq. I was not allowed to recover from my injuries. My nose was still bleeding as I was put on the plane. I was in a state of shock and a lot of pain, which led to me cry and groan to such an extent that the pilot of the plane came over and told me to be quiet. The handcuffs remained on me until the plane had taken off (for over three hours). When I arrived in Erbil, Northern Iraq, I tried to complain to the Kurdish authorities this was however difficult because the security guard who assaulted me could hear me.’
IFIR has complained to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UK Border Agency about the alleged assault and has raised its concerns ‘about the way that deportations are handled by private security firms contracted by the Home Office’ which ‘comes as the inquest as the inquest into the death of Jimmy Mubenga hears how he died at the hands of three G4S guards in October 2010 during a similar forced deportation.’
Related links
International Federation of Iraqi Refugees (IFIR)