In a move which has exposed the soft touch British asylum policy to the world’s glare, the government of Iraq has refused to take many of its own citizens back after they were deported from Britain. The deportees were returned to Britain where they are once again sponging off the British taxpayer.

The farcical turn of events happened this week when the Border Agency put a group of 40 ‘asylum seekers’ from Iraq on an aircraft back to Baghdad after they lost their asylum appeals.

Iraq, not being as stupid as Britain, asked for evidence of where the deportees would be going once they got off the aircraft at Baghdad airport. Only ten of the men were able to show evidence of “ongoing journey” preparations, and were allowed to enter Iraq. The rest were refused permission to even leave the aircraft — despite being Iraqi citizens with full legal right of residence in that country.

The remaining 30 Iraqis were then flown back to Britain and are all now enjoying food and shelter here once again, all courtesy of the British taxpayer.

The refusal by Iraq to take its own citizens back underlines the insanity of the Tory and Labour Party-developed asylum policy in Britain.

In the first place, all these Iraqis would, in all likelihood, have crossed Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, all the nations of southern and central Europe and finally France, before landing in Britain.

International asylum law states that asylum seekers only have the right of refuge in the first neighbouring safe country to the one they are fleeing. This means that as soon as Iraqi ‘asylum seekers’ passed Jordan’s borders, they were no longer “genuine” and had lost all asylum rights under international law.

However, because the British asylum system is known worldwide as a pushover, these scroungers crossed all these countries before declaring their ‘asylum’ claims.

The geographic isolation of Britain from these Third World lands means that there are no legal asylum seekers here at all. The asylum swindle would simply not be tolerated by a British National Party government.

Similarly, the outrage of Iraq refusing to accept its own citizens is a matter of the gravest international concern. A BNP government would not hesitate to deal with this matter in the only way possible: by forcing the Iraqi state to take responsibility for its own swindlers.

* The madness of allowing asylum swindlers from all over the world to settle in Britain was illustrated yesterday with the sentencing of a Zimbabwean swindler to three years in jail for a £1 million bank fraud.

Sonny Chibuwe, 29, was the sixth person to be sentenced by Leeds Crown Court for the conspiracy. They have now been given prison terms totalling 21 years.

The ‘asylum seekers’ used the postal system to steal cheque books which were forged or altered and paid into defendants’ accounts and money withdrawn.

Chibuwe brought his wife and two children to Britain and as such will avoid deportation in terms of the “Human Rights Act.”