http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/mar/29/immigration.immigrationpolicyThe biggest operation yet to return Iraqi asylum seekers from Britain to northern Iraq ended in violence when some of those on the plane were beaten by guards on their arrival, it was claimed yesterday.
Iraqis on Thursday night's flight said security officers had boarded the plane at Irbil airport in northern Iraq and beat people who refused to get out of the aircraft.
"They were armed with guns, and they beat people from Mosul and Baghdad who refused to leave the plane," said one man on the flight, speaking by phone from Iraq, who gave his name as Rizgar.
"They even hit them in the back of the head with their guns, many people were bleeding. The British security guards were also hitting people."
According to Dashty Jamal of the Federation of Iraqi Refugees, it was armed guards from the Kurdish KDP party who had boarded the plane after it landed and beat the passengers.