Geneva: The United Nations refugee agency said on Friday it was investigating accounts by rejected Iraqi asylum seekers deported from Britain that they were beaten by British border agents forcing them onto a plane.
"We are looking into the accounts of mistreatment among the rejected asylum seekers who were forcibly returned yesterday from the UK," UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic said.
UNHCR lawyers in Baghdad interviewed 14 of the 42 men who were forcibly returned on Thursday by the UK Border Agency, he told a news briefing in Geneva.
"The men claimed they were beaten by agency personnel in the airport in London while being forced onto the plane," he said.
UNHCR officials have met six of the Iraqis and "saw fresh bruises which indicate mistreatment could have occurred", according to the spokesman who had no further details.
Another 36 Iraqi asylum seekers were still being held at Baghdad airport by authorities, and UNHCR lawyers were in touch with some of them by telephone, he said.
