The United States has deported at least 30 people to Iraq, where they are at risk of arbitrary detention and mistreatment, and is threatening to send back hundreds more, according to rights groups
The deportees are among 1,400 Iraqis that the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is trying to send back, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Before US President Donald Trump's "travel ban" in January 2017, the Iraqi government refused entry to citizens returning involuntarily. However, soon after the ban – which barred citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, including Iraq, from entering the US – Iraq agreed to accept a small charter plane of deportees and to facilitate deportations. The White House subsequently removed Iraq from the list.
About 300 of the 1,400 Iraqis that ICE is trying to deport were arrested but later ordered freed after a legal challenge by the ACLU. Many of them had lived legally in the United States for decades, Human Rights Watch said in a report on the issue released on Thursday.
According to US law, even legal permanent residents can be deported if they are found guilty of crimes, even minor offences. Immigration violations such as overstaying visas are also grounds for deportation.
Human Rights Watch said some of the Iraqis were threatened with long imprisonment in the US if they did not agree to leave, putting them in a difficult situation because they did not have the necessary paperwork to live safely in Iraq.
“Anyone living in Iraq without valid Iraqi identity documents is vulnerable to arbitrary detention and ill-treatment,” said Lama Fakih, HRW deputy director for Middle East and Northern Africa.
"ICE should halt all deportations of Iraqis until it can ensure that they won’t face detention and ill-treatment, and Iraq should ensure that all Iraqi deportees are given proper Iraqi identity documents before they return”.
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Three men deported to Iraq earlier this year told HRW that ICE officers and Iraqi consular representatives approached them in US immigration detention and threatened them with years of imprisonment if they did not sign Iraqi paperwork agreeing to their return.
One of the deportees said that before boarding his flight from Bahrain to Baghdad, the two ICE officers who had escorted him from the US demanded he sign a document.
The officer reportedly threatened the man, saying: “In prison, they’re going to see a guy with tattoos like this and they’re going to rape you.
“If you don’t sign the paperwork, we’re going to email the Iraqi government and tell them what kind of crimes you committed and how we deported you and you’re going to be in jail over there and God knows how long they’re going to keep you there,” the officer reportedly told the Iraqi.
Company profile
Company: Rent Your Wardrobe
Date started: May 2021
Founder: Mamta Arora
Based: Dubai
Sector: Clothes rental subscription
Stage: Bootstrapped, self-funded
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Scoreline
Liverpool 4
Oxlade-Chamberlain 9', Firmino 59', Mane 61', Salah 68'
Manchester City 3
Sane 40', Bernardo Silva 84', Gundogan 90' 1
Another way to earn air miles
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An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
Europe’s rearming plan
- Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
- Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
- Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
- Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
- Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
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Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The specs
Engine: 1.6-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 217hp at 5,750rpm
Torque: 300Nm at 1,900rpm
Transmission: eight-speed auto
Price: from Dh130,000
On sale: now
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
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