[Al Arabiya Latest] Around 30 Iraqi asylum seekers who Britain tried to send back to Iraq were refused entry to their homeland and are now back on English soil, officials said Friday.A plane chartered by Britain with about 40 Iraqis on board landed in Baghdad Thursday but only about 10 of them were allowed to remain. The others were flown back to Britain and are now in a detention centre.
The flight, which was strongly opposed by refugee and human rights groups, was the first taking failed asylum seekers back to Baghdad since the start of the Iraq war in 2003.
"We are establishing a new route to southern Iraq and have successfully returned 10 Iraqis to the Baghdad area. This is an important first step for us," the chief executive of the U.K. Border Agency Lin Homer said.
"We are working closely with the Iraq government to iron out the issues which led to some of the returnees being sent back, and expect to carry out another flight in the future."
The Home Office could not immediately say when this would be or why they were refused entry.