refugees

Staff training at immigration detention centres must be improved, says an official report which recorded a catalogue of racist behaviour in the system.
The race relations audit, published yesterday, found that officers at several centres had taunted detainees - describing them as "black bastards" in one case - and found a "tense" and "turbulent" atmosphere in some units.

It ranked the largest centre, Harmondsworth - run by private operator Kaylx, as the worst performer of the 10. Haslar in Hampshire topped the table while Dover came second. Both are operated by the Prison Service.

Some 46,000 refugees returned home to Iraq from Syria between September and December 2007, the Iraqi Red Crescent said in a new report obtained yesterday, a much lower figure than that given by the Iraqi government.

Just how many of the 2.2 million Iraqis forced into exile by sectarian violence have returned is a matter of debate among aid groups, the US military, and the Iraqi government, which is anxious to play up the returns as a sign of improved security.

Some 19,800 Iraqis fleeing violence and persecution applied for asylum in the West in the first half of 2007, accounting for one of every seven claims filed during the period, the United Nations said on Friday.

The number of Iraqis seeking asylum in 36 industrialised countries rose 45 percent over the previous six months, and is already approaching last year's total of 22,200.