Officials ready to send hundreds of Kurds back to Iraq

The Home Office is planning to return to the Kurdish region of Iraq hundreds of failed asylum-seekers, many of whom are living in destitution in British cities.

Refugee groups said the region was not safe and predicted an "outcry" if ministers went ahead with the plans while allied troops leave for the Gulf.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva said: "There's such a huge question mark hanging over the whole country. It would seem not a very opportune moment to send people back."

Kurdish groups believe that as many as 3,000 Iraqi Kurds are sleeping in mosques or on the floors of friends after officials rejected their asylum claims. They are unable to work or get access to accommodation or benefits, but until now the Government has been unable for logistical reasons to send them home. Many have resorted to begging or working in the black economy.

Home Office figures show that 2,940 Iraqi nationals, mostly Kurds, had their final appeals for asylum rejected in the year to October. But a parliamentary answer recently revealed that only 35 Iraqis were removed in a three-month period last year. Many of them are believed to have voluntarily gone to other European states.

There are no direct flights between Britain and Iraq, and countries bordering Iraq, such as Turkey, have up to now been reluctant to assist in returning asylum-seekers. But a Home Office spokesman said: "We are currently exploring options of returning Iraqi Kurds to the Kurdish autonomous zone."

Kurdish groups and refugee agencies said last week that thousands were "living in limbo" in Britain after being forced to abandon Home Office accommodation and live rough without the right to work.

"Rebwar", 26, was forced to leave his Home Office accommodation in Sunderland in August last year after his asylum claim was finally refused. He headed for Birmingham, where there is a sizeable Kurdish community, and ended up sleeping rough.

Rebwar said: "I used to sleep in mosques around Birmingham. I was sometimes given food at the mosques and the Asians and Pakistanis gave me some money for food. Other than that, I did not have anything. I was only able to wash in the mosque and I was not able to wash my clothes."

Rebwar recently befriended some other Kurds and has been sleeping on the floor of their rented flat in Burton on Trent. "They have asked me to leave twice already but I do not know where I can go," he said.

He is unable to work, or to sign on with a doctor or at a college. "I spend most of my time watching television or sometimes I walk into town and then back again as there is nothing I can do there," he said. Rebwar said that the dangers from political enemies in the Kurdish autonomous area and from the probable war in Iraq meant that he could not return home safely.

Louise Ellman, Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, has raised with ministers concerns over the conditions that the failed Iraqi asylum-seekers are facing. She said: "The Iraqis fled persecution and have been told they have to go back. There's no way of getting them back and yet they are given no support here. In view of the international situation it seems to be a cruel irony."

Iraq has been the leading source country for asylum claims in the past year, with applications running at more than 1,000 a month. The majority of recent claimants have been given temporary leave to remain, although 3,035 Iraqis were refused asylum on initial decision in the year to October.

Barry Stoyle, chief executive of the Refugee Legal Centre in London, said: "Kurds who are coming from the Kurdish autonomous areas to claim asylum are largely being refused. But they are not removed and are left, in effect, in limbo."

Soran Hamarash, 35, an Iraqi Kurd refugee based at the Kurdish Cultural Centre in Kennington, south London, said his countrymen were being forced into exile by the international embargo against Iraq and that most wanted ultimately to return.

"Ninety-nine per cent of Iraqi Kurdish people here support the war. That's the sad reality. They are looking forward to that and the misery ending so that they can go home," he said.