Report of the first conference of the Coalition to stop deportations to Iraq 24 June 2006

Posted on Tuesday, July 25, 2006

The coalition to stop Deportations to Iraq held a successful and well attended conference in London on Saturday 24 June.  In the first session chaired by Sarah Parker John McDonnell MP said that in his view some people in the government support an amnesty in some form, and urged the campaign to make the best possible use of the next six months to keep putting the arguments for a review of unresolved asylum cases to more MPs, to the government, and to the wider movement.  John McDonnell also suggested that the campaign help organise an event on 7 October, the International Day for Migrants’ Rights that has already been called for by the European Social Forum.  Dashty Jamal International Federation of Iraqi Refugees gave an overview of the current situation in Iraq calling on the conference to help ensure that the twenty first century is the century of the emancipation of humanity from the disastrous conditions that have turned Iraq from a modern country into a jungle.  This depends on us and our future conscious activity.  Our first goal towards this end must be forcing the UK government to change its anti-refugee policies.  Tom Finch from the Refugee Council spoke after Dashty. Sawan Salim from the Kurdistan Refugee Women’s organisation spoke of the circumstances of women fleeing from Kurdistan.  Sarah Cutler (Bail for Immigration Detainees) gave a practical speech to the conference on the first steps to be taken by asylum seekers when they are detained. 

In the afternoon plenaries the following speakers addressed the conference: Burhan Fatah (Federation of Iraqi Refugees in Manchester) Arun Kundnani (Institute of Race Relations) Kate (Brides without Borders), Houzan Mahmoud (From Iraqi Freedom Congress) Doug Holton (Stop Deportation of Children), and Jean Lambert MEP.  Also several asylum seekers whose cases have been refused gave very moving speeches about their own stories and their struggle to survive with dignity against all the odds. The conference enabled new people to hear the campaign’s message,  that we are stronger if we work together, and it was also valuable for us to consolidate existing links and plan ahead.

A thirteen person steering committee was elected to run the Coalition of stop Deportations to Iraq (Dashty Jamal, Sarah Parker, Jean Lambert, Sawsan Salim,. Burhan Fatah, Doug Holton, Bestun Baban, Shwan Hamed,  Abbas Pshdare, Taha Hama, George Binette, Kamaran Kader.)

Letters of support from several trade unions including the CWU and the NUJ and from human rights and refugee rights organisations including Barbed Wire Britain were received.

  Before the conference closed we passed a resolution reaffirming our aims and agreeing some new areas of work including doing more joint work with other campaigns around refugee issue.  The resolution will be sent to Tony Blair and to the Minister for Nationality, Citizenship and Immigration.

For more information please contact Sarah Parker on 0208 809 0633, email sarahp107@hotmail.com or Dashty Jamal (International Federation of Iraqi Refugees) on 07707864504, email d.jamal@ntlworld.com. Federation of Iraqi Refugees – Manchester, Burhan Fatah: 07866-757213, office number: 0161 2342784, email: burhanfatah@aol.com . Nottingham: Jasm Ghafor, 07739 – 338178, email: jasm rg@yahoo.co.uk.www.csdiraq.com