Iraqis deported from Britain cite danger

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BAGHDAD, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- Nine Iraqis deported by Britain to their homeland say the Home Office has sent them to their deaths.

The asylum seekers were sent home two weeks ago -- the first non Kurdish Iraqis to be deported by Britain since the fall of Saddam Hussein -- after the Home Office declared the country to be safe. But one of them, Kamaran Moulood, 39, told The Times of London in Baghdad that the deadly car bomb blasts in the city on Sunday refutes London's rationale.

While standing in front of the government buildings destroyed by the blasts, Moulood told the newspaper: "I want the British officials who sent us back to Baghdad to see this. We are in hell now. Our lives are in danger here. How much more obvious can it be?"

Another, Basam Ahmad, 29, who lived in Middlesbrough, England, for almost five years, said the deportees are not exaggerating the dangers.

"It's not paranoia," he told the newspaper. "Everyone in Baghdad knows the experience. You walk along the street and suddenly a car explodes. It happened here on Sunday."

A U.K. Border Agency spokeswoman said the bombings had not changed its policy on failed Iraqi asylum seekers.