LONDON, Nov. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Britain will fly failed Iraqi asylum seekers back home this weekend despite grave concerns that the country is not safe, Britain's Channel 4 News reported.

    A leaked government document showed that about 15 Iraqis are scheduled to be sent to Iraq's northern Kurdish area this weekend,said the report.

    The British Home Office would not confirm the plan, but said these Iraqi nationals had been detained with a view to being removed.

    The government decision followed advice from the United NationsHigh Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) which said returns to the Kurdish regions of Iraq are now "feasible."

    However, The Refugee Council of Britain urged the government toreconsider the decision.

    Maeve Sherlock, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said the situation in Iraq is still "very volatile."

    "We should not be sending people back until we know it is safe and we cannot say that we do."

    Britain has in the past three years seen more than 20,000 Iraqiapplicants for asylum, and the vast majority have been rejected.

    A spokesman for the Home Office said hundreds of Iraqis have returned home voluntarily since July 2003 and hundreds more are preparing to return.

    "Voluntary returns are preferable to enforced returns but if people don't leave voluntarily, we will enforce their return -- Iraq is no different in that regard," he said.

    Nevertheless, enforced returns will proceed on "a case-by-case basis" only after the areas are assessed as "sufficiently stable,"he said. Enditem