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HRW: US deports Iraqis, threatens them with imprisonment

December 21, 2018 at 11:32 am

Activists stage a rally against President Donald Trump’s 90-days ban of entry on 7 Muslim-majority countries in San Francisco, US on January 28, 2017 [Tayfun Coşkun – Anadolu Agency]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said yesterday that the US government has deported more than 30 Iraqis, returning them to their country, and has threatened some with jail if they do not leave.

“The United States government has deported at least 30 of a planned 1,400 people originally from Iraq back to their country, in some cases threatening long imprisonment if they don’t consent,” it said.

According to HRW, in all cases, the deportees did not have valid identity documents, putting them at risk of arbitrary detention and ill-treatment in Iraq.

“Before President Donald Trump’s ‘travel ban’ in January 2017, the Iraqi government was  not accepting any nationals involuntarily returned. 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,” it added.

READ: Iraq parliament calls for US forces to leave