Iraqi refugees hole up in Danish church

Ten Iraqi asylum seekers have taken refuge in a Copenhagen church to protest an agreement that would allow Denmark to forcibly repatriate them to Iraq, according to news reports on Saturday.

"It is our last chance. We don't want to return to Iraq because the situation is dangerous and we'd be risking our lives," Wassim Saheb, an Iraqi refugee who has been living in Denmark for the past eight years, said on Danish TV2 News.

"I love this country and my future is in Denmark and not in Iraq," he said from inside the Vor Fru Kirke church alongside other Iraqi refugees and a group of supporters.

The protesters hope to achieve the same success as Palestinians who occupied Copenhagen's Blaagaard Kirke church in 1992 for several months, forcing the government to pass a special law granting asylum to 460 Palestinian refugees then in the country.

Denmark and Iraq reached an agreement Wednesday to repatriate 282 Iraqi refugees, among them 20 chilldren, whose asylum requests have been rejected.

love this country and my future is in Denmark and not in Iraq

Wassim Saheb

Agreement with Iraq

The deal, clinched after intense negotiations, was signed recently by Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and the Danish ambassador in Baghdad, Bo Erik Weber, Hornbech told Danish public radio DR.

They will not be sent back together at once, "but little by little, if they do not agree to return voluntarily," Hornbech said.

Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen hailed the deal which he said was "essential for the legitimacy of our entire asylum system."

"We must welcome people who are persecuted when they seek asylum in Denmark, but if they don't fulfill the criteria, then we naturally have to send them back home," he told Danish news channel TV2 News.

At the end of March, Iraqis represented about 45 percent of all rejected asylum seekers who were under expulsion order, according to a report by the integration ministry.

Without an agreement with Baghdad, Denmark could not send the Iraqis back to the war-torn country due to fears for their safety.

A large majority of the Iraqis have lived at the Sandholmlejren asylum centre north of Copenhagen for up to eight years, according to the Danish Red Cross.

Only 14 of the 282 Iraqis have agreed to return voluntarily to Iraq despite financial incentives offered by the Danish government, the report said.

We must welcome people who are persecuted when they seek asylum in Denmark, but if they don't fulfill the criteria, then we naturally have to send them back home

Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen