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Iraqi hijackers claim political asylum

By Liz Fekete

1 October 1996

The hijacking of a Sudan airways plane by seven Iraqis on 26 August carrying 192 passengers has raised questions as to whether carrying out a criminal act negates an application for political asylum.

Chair of the foreign affairs select committee David Howells said that the Iraqis should be returned to Sudan to show that Britain was not a soft touch for terrorists. But the Iraqis' desperate story reveals the injustices of European asylum polices that prevent political refugees fleeing to the west.

Military opponents to Saddam Hussein

All the men are believed to be low-ranking military opponents of Sadam Hussein's regime who were on a military delegation to Khartoum when they were summoned back to Iraq. Fearing certain execution, the Iraqis seized the plane after it had taken off in Khartoum and demanded to be taken to London. While all men have been charged with hijacking under the Aviation Securities Act 1982, six Iraqi women and two children also on board have been released while asylum applications are considered.

The women's story

The women were all survivors of the Basa uprising of 1991, related to prominent members of the opposition, which was brutally repressed by Saddam Hussein. The husband and two sons of one of the women were executed. She learnt about the death of her second son when Iraqi security forces presented her with his ears. The women fled Iraq and were smuggled into Jordan. Since then they have moved across the Middle East to escape detention. In each country - Yemen, Jordan, Sudan - they made applications for visas for Britain, Netherlands, Canada, Italy, but each time they were refused. In Jordan, they approached the British consul for a visa to Britain but once their background became known they were seen only by a Jordanian official, who refused their request.

Guardian 30, 31.8.96

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