The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
•
UNHCR and
IOM had no expatriate staff in Iraq to maintain and monitor
returnee
programmes.
868.
The UK
continued to lobby Ambassador Bremer.545
869.
Ambassador
Bremer agreed on 17 February 2004 that the UK could implement
a
pilot
programme of enforced returns to northern Iraq from 1 April
2004.546
The
agreement
covered the
lifetime of the CPA only. An IPU official commented that
Ambassador
Bremer had
not agreed to accept enforced returns from any other Western
country,
including
the US.
870.
Later that
month, Mr Blunkett announced that the UK intended to begin a
pilot
programme
of voluntary and enforced returns to Iraq.547
871.
It did not
prove possible to implement that pilot programme.
872.
The Kurdish
Regional Government (KRG) wrote to UNHCR on 9 May stating
its
opposition
to enforced returns.548
873.
The FCO
subsequently cancelled a scoping mission by a Home Office
delegation
scheduled
for late May, due to the lack of helicopters and armoured vehicles
to transport
them to
northern Iraq and to avoid antagonising the KRG.549
874.
Mr Blunkett
wrote to Mr Straw on 28 May, to urge him to
reconsider.550
Mr Blunkett
advised
that Iraq consistently figured in the list of the “top ten asylum
producing
countries”.
Unless the UK established the principle of forced return by sending
out a
flight of
returnees before 30 June 2004 (the expected date of the transfer of
power in
Iraq from
the CPA to an Iraqi Interim Administration), the new Iraqi
authorities might
insist that
negotiations on enforced returns “recommence from the
beginning”.
875.
Mr Straw
replied on 7 June, acknowledging Mr Blunkett’s concern but
stating
that making
enforced returns before 1 July without consultation with the
incoming
Interim
Iraqi Government (IIG), its ministries and the KRG could undermine
broader
UK diplomatic
efforts and predispose the IIG to be unhelpful on returns in the
future.551
876.
Mr Blunkett
accepted Mr Straw’s response.552
545
Minute
Greenstock to
Bremer, 15 February 2004, ‘Iraqi Returns from the UK’.
546
Minute IPU
[junior official] to PS/Baroness Symons, 18 May 2004, ‘Iraq:
Enforced Returns of Failed
Asylum
Seekers to Iraq’.
547
Paper FCO,
26 February 2004, ‘No.10 Weekly Update – 26 February
2004’.
548
Letter
Siwaily to UNHCR, 9 May 2004, ‘Iraqi returnees from
Iran’.
549
Minute IPU
[junior official] to PS/Baroness Symons, 18 May 2004, ‘Iraq:
Enforced Returns of Failed
Asylum
Seekers to Iraq’.
550
Letter
Blunkett to Straw, 28
May 2004, ‘Enforced Return of Failed Asylum Seekers to
Iraq’.
551
Letter
Straw to Blunkett, 7 June 2004, ‘Enforced Return of Failed Asylum
Seekers to Iraq’.
552
Letter
Blunkett to Straw, 22 June 2004, ‘Enforced Return of Failed Asylum
Seekers to Iraq’.
504