News

A failed Kurdish asylum seeker who reportedly sewed up his mouth in an attempt to avoid being returned to Iraq had the stitches forcibly removed and was put on a plane the next day.

He was among 49 rejected asylum seekers who had been taken from Dover and Colnbrook immigration detention centres in preparation for the midday flight to northern Iraq from to Stansted airport last Wednesday.

The flight's take-off was delayed six hours because two other asylum seekers had to be removed from the cabin. One had allegedly smuggled a blade on board and slashed his stomach, while a second concussed himself by banging his head against the window.

The aircraft eventually left some six hours late bound for Irbil in northern Iraq.

Despite arriving in clear conditions, the flight made several passes before returning to Turkey because of “bad weather”, and eventually the plane and its passengers arrived back at Stansted 31 hours after leaving the UK.

A UK Border Agency spokesman refused to comment on the flight but said returns to northern Iraq were enforced when officials were satisfied that it was safe to do so.