This week the British government announced plans to start enforcing the return of a number of Iraqi Kurdish asylum seekers to northern Iraq. Home Office Minister Beverley Hughes said, "We are exploring the options for enforcing returns to northern Iraq using routes that will not cross territory controlled by the government in Baghdad.” Officials claim that some refugees from Iraq deserve asylum, but some others do not meet the criteria set forth by the United Nations’ convention on refugees. The Kurdish-controlled area of northern Iraq has been effectively autonomous since the end of the Gulf War in 1991, protected by the U.S. and British-patrolled ‘no-fly zone’.
