They were refused asylum in the UK, the UK wants to take them back to Iraq, Iraq says no way.
Here is the story in the Daily Mail:
The Iraqi parliament has blocked the repatriation of thousands of asylum seekers who have lost the right to remain in Britain.
It has banned the forced return from Europe of tens of thousands of Iraqis and threatened to fine airlines that deliver deportees.
Failed asylum seekers have already been turned back at the border, said the refugee support group that pushed for the change.
The UK has failed to return any rejected Iraqi asylum seekers since March 2011, mainly because of legal problems over their arrival at Baghdad airport and the breakdown of security within Iraq.
[….]
Between 2007 and 2009 over 38,000 Iraqis accounted for 17 per cent of all asylum applications in the EU, making it the largest country of origin for refugees.
The only explanation I can come up with about why Iraq doesn’t want them back is that they are probably criminals. We all know Iraq is just fine now—right?—Obama told us so when he withdrew our troops.
Be sure to read the comments to the Daily Mail story, they are more interesting than the article itself.
As we approach our 5th anniversary at RRW, we have 527 previous posts on Iraqi refugees in our special category, here.