In response to the charter flight scheduled to take off tomorrow morning returning Iraqi asylum seekers to Baghdad, Donna Covey, Chief Executive of the Refugee Council said:

“This is an astonishing and alarming move that disregards all of the evidence that Baghdad is still a very unsafe place. The last time this was attempted, back in October, the flight was turned around and went back to the UK with 34 of the 44 passengers still on board.

“Returns should always be safe and sustainable, no matter what. It is far cheaper and better to help those Iraqis who want to go home voluntarily to do so. Returning small numbers of individuals to a dangerous city where their safety is far from guaranteed is both costly and shows a serious disregard for their welfare.”