Protesters gathered outside the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) offices in London ahead of a deportation flight for around 30 people to Erbil in Northern Iraq on May 31st. A demonstration was also held in the Kurdish autonomous region of Iraq.

On the eve of the first UK flight in ten years, activists spoke to a detainee being held in a centre, who explains he considers Britain to be his family's home. Young children of asylum seekers, expressed how they had been affected by Home Office decisions.

The Foreign Office currently warns against any travel to the country, where there is a high risk of kidnapping from Islamic State. Iraqi MPs are attempting to intervene and refuse the flight on arrival as some detainees have been denied legal representation and processes have not been correctly followed.

The Human Rights Watch World Report in 2021 says that there is evidence of 'arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings' of any individuals opposed to political groups in the country. Widespread use of torture is used within the criminal justice system.

The flight is one of several on Tuesday, aiming to deport 300 foreign nationals also to Albania and Bangladesh, which has been enabled in part by the Nationality and Borders Bill recently passed into law, making it easier to remove individuals for immigration offences such as overstaying a visa.