Written question asked by Lord Hylton (Crossbench), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord West of Spithead (Labour) on Tuesday, 10 November 2009.

Immigration: Deportation

Question: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many of the 43 persons deported on a flight to Baghdad in October were Arabs; and how many were Kurds.

Answer: The UK Border Agency recently arranged, in conjunction with the Iraqi authorities, the removal of 44 Iraqi nationals to Baghdad via a charter flight. Of the 44 on the flight, 12 were foreign national prisoners subject to a deportation order, and the remaining 32 were subject to removal from the UK for other immigration offences. All those on the flight had an appropriate document to allow their entry into Iraq, as per agreements between the UK Government and the Iraq Government. Upon arrival, 10 people were given permission to enter Iraq, while the remaining 34 were rejected and subsequently returned to the UK. The 10 who were accepted were a mixture of foreign national prisoners and other immigration offenders. Of the 44 individuals on the flight, 29 were of Kurdish ethnicity and 15 of Arab ethnicity. All those removed were from outside the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) administered region of northern Iraq.

Secondary information