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Home Office suspends Iraqi repatriation
The Home Office has suspended plans to repatriate failed Iraqi asylum seekers amid continuing violence.
It was announced in February that the UK would become the first European country to begin enforced returns of failed asylum seekers, with a pilot project to send 30 per cent of Iraqis back home at the end of April.
However, a spokesman said that this would now not be possible.
No new date had been set for the scheme to begin.
In addition, a voluntary scheme of repatriation, where Iraqi people would be offered money to return home, has been abandoned as routes into Baghdad have been closed by violence.
UN memo
Meanwhile a United Nations memo dated March 1 and leaked to the Observer this weekend, warns that a "climate of insecurity continues in Iraq", despite a "timetable for the restoration of Iraqi sovereignty".
"Security incidents targeting both coalition forces and, increasingly, Iraqis continue with alarming frequency. These frequently result in the death or serious injury of the targeted individuals as well as other civilians," it says.
"The last few months have also seen an increase in reported kidnappings, especially of women."
Flag of convenience
Meanwhile, Charles Kennedy has warned against using the United Nations as a "flag of convenience" in Iraq.
Speaking on Sunday, the Liberal Democrat leader said that the prime minister and President George W Bush must consider and understand the organisation's position.
"They [the UN] have been pretty comprehensively snubbed by the Americans in particular," he said.
"The occasional warm references now from the president are not going to overcome some of the diplomatic differences.
"They have also been subject to savage attack and loss of life in Iraq and the international community is still bearing the scars of all the difficulties that have opened up. So no wonder they are treading with caution."
Press conference
Kennedy went on to compare the recent joint press conference held by Tony Blair and President Bush in Washington to a "parent that takes their child to a piano recital".
"Blair is the concerned parent looking on as the president pontificates, or perhaps does not pontificate but stumbles for his words at times," he told the GMTV Sunday programme.
"He is concerned as to both possible gaffes that might emerge, but much more substantially, obviously, is concerned about the degree to which pragmatic British influence is getting through.
"I think the president no doubt gives Mr Blair a very courteous listen. The extent to which he actually hears what the prime minister, one hopes, is trying to tell him is a very different story."
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