Iraqi immigration minister heads to Netherlands to discuss forced deportation of Iraqis
17/06/2012 19:01
ERBIL, June 17 (Aknews) – Iraqi Immigration Minister Dindar Doski has set off to Netherlands at the head of a ministerial delegation to discuss with Dutch officials the forced deportation of Iraqi asylum seekers.
The several-days visit is aimed at discussions with Netherlands officials to find ways to help hundreds of Iraqi asylum seekers in the country who have been denied refugee status and are set to be forcibly deported to Iraq.
“There are more than 1,200 Iraqi asylum seekers, 90% of whom are from the Kurdistan Region, are set to be deported by Netherlands” said the Immigration Minister, “and 1,300 more are being prepared for forced deportation in the coming days”
“We will try to find ways to persuade the Dutch government to not forcibly deport the Iraqi asylum seekers.. but if they are resolved on deporting them then we will try to find ways to help those asylum seekers when they are deported” Mr Doski told AKnews.
On Saturday, the Dutch Immigration Minister Geert Leirse today refused to allow an Iraqi refugee to stay in the Netherlands although her husband and her two children have Dutch citizenship.
Despite appeals submitted to the department of immigration to look into the case and give priority to humanitarian motives, no positive results were achieved. Ahmed went to the Netherlands more than a year ago to join her husband, but she was surprised by the rejection of her asylum request.
Iraqis
whose applications for asylum were rejected in the Netherlands are impatiently
awaiting a decision about their fate after ending their protest in Groningen
city in response to the call of Leirse to move temporarily to a shelter.
Some of them hope to stay in the Netherlands while few of them wish to return
safely according to conditions, including the provision of work for them in
Iraq and financial support or monthly income until finding a job.
Since the beginning of the war in Iraq, nearly 40,000 Iraqis have arrived in
the Netherlands. Since 2008 the Dutch government considered that the security
situation in Iraq improved considerably and worked to re-examine asylum
applications of thousands of Iraqis living in the Netherlands.
By Fryad Mohammed
RY/AKnews
