Kurdish refugees who fled persecution by Saddam Hussein are being forced into destitution in Britain, a campaign group has claimed.

The National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC) said Kurds were victims of a legal loophole which meant they could not go home to northern Iraq nor claim UK benefits either.

The government has rejected many Kurds' asylum applications, declaring that their homeland is safe.

But to return home they must fly to Baghdad where the Home Office accepts they could be liable to torture or execution.

Within seven days they are made homeless and they're made destitute

Tony Openshaw

The NCADC said the situation affected more than 100 Kurds living in the North West region alone.

Many, such as 32-year-old Abdul Lukman, living in Greater Manchester, fear for their lives if they return to Iraq.

His friend Faisal Jermal said: "He came here because he had trouble in the old country and has political associations.

"He didn't ask the government for property or for support such as money when he came.

"But if the government return him back to the old country he will be killed by the Iraqi system."

Tony Openshaw, a solicitor with the NCADC, said Mr Lukman's situation exposed a legal loophole.

Ms Hughes: "Kurds making own way to Iraq"

Mr Openshaw said: "Because their status becomes that of a failed asylum seeker automatically the accommodation they've been provided with will stop, with just seven days notice."

He added: "They haven't got the ability to work, they're not entitled to the benefit system, or to the housing system.

"Within seven days they are made homeless and they're made destitute."

Kurds fled northern Iraq in the early 1990s after Saddam Hussein launched a series of attacks against them, including chemical weapons.

The Kurds have been among the fiercest opponents of his Baath party regime.

'Returning voluntarily'

The Home Office has accepted that they cannot go back via Baghdad and is not deporting any of the refugees, saying the situation is under review.

But Asylum and Immigration Minister Beverley Hughes believes refugees should make their own way back.

She told BBC GMR: "Some people are returning voluntarily and finding their own route back in the same way they found their route here.

"There's been a significant increase in the number of people returning voluntarily.

"We do feel very strongly that we can't go further in this situation because the level of support we can give to people does provide something of a pull factor, of an attraction, for other people to come in illegally.

"That's something that we have to guard against."