London has not received asylum applications from two daughters of Saddam Hussein, the government said Monday following a press report that the women hope to move to the UK.
Two of Saddam's three daughters — Raghad, 35 and Rana, 33 — are living with their nine children in a home in Baghdad which has no electric power, according to a report Sunday in the Arabic Asharq Al-Awsat daily. The two women's husbands were both assassinated by Saddam in 1996 after they defected to Jordan.
The newspaper quoted Ezz a-Din Mohammed Hassan al-Majid, a cousin of the ousted Iraqi leader, as saying he would return to London in a week to try to help the women get asylum in Britain. Al-Majid said if they were refused access, they would try to start new lives in Egypt, Qatar or the United Arab Emirates.
"We have not received any application," said a spokesman for the Home Office, AP reported.
"Under the Geneva Convention, the U.K. is not required to offer asylum to known war criminals or those who have breached the human rights of others, but I am not saying that this would apply in these two cases," the spokesman added. The women could get in touch with the British mission which recently opened in Baghdad, he said.
"It would be highly unusual for someone to try to claim asylum from overseas. It's not completely unfeasible, but it's not likely," he said. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
