But a parliamentary answer recently revealed that only 35 Iraqis were removed in a three-month period last year. Many of them are believed to have voluntarily gone to other European states.There are no direct flights between Britain and Iraq, and countries bordering Iraq, such as Turkey, have up to now been reluctant to assist in returning asylum-seekers. But a Home Office spokesman said: "We are currently exploring options of returning Iraqi Kurds to the Kurdish autonomous zone."Kurdish groups and refugee agencies said last week that thousands were "living in limbo" in Britain after being forced to abandon Home Office accommodation and live rough without the right to work."Rebwar", 26, was forced to leave his Home Office accommodation in Sunderland in August last year after his asylum claim was finally refused. He headed for Birmingham, where there is a sizeable Kurdish community, and ended up sleeping rough.Rebwar said: "I used to sleep in mosques around Birmingham. I was sometimes given food at the mosques and the Asians and Pakistanis gave me some money for food Other than that, I did not have anything.

I was only able to wash in the mosque and I was not able to wash my clothes."Rebwar recently befriended some other Kurds and has been sleeping on the floor of their rented flat in Burton on Trent. "They have asked me to leave twice already but I do not know where I can go," he said.He is unable to work, or to sign on with a doctor or at a college. "I spend most of my time watching television or sometimes I walk into town and then back again as there is nothing I can do there," he said. Rebwar said that the dangers from political enemies in the Kurdish autonomous area and from the probable war in Iraq meant that he could not return home safely.Louise Ellman, Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, has raised with ministers concerns over the conditions that the failed Iraqi asylum-seekers are facing. She said: "The Iraqis fled persecution and have been told they have to go back. There's no way of getting them back and yet they are given no support here. In view of the international situation it seems to be a cruel irony."Iraq has been the leading source country for asylum claims in the past year, with applications running at more than 1,000 a month.

The majority of recent claimants have been given temporary leave to remain, although 3,035 Iraqis were refused asylum on initial decision in the year to October.Barry Stoyle, chief executive of the Refugee Legal Centre in London, said: "Kurds who are coming from the Kurdish autonomous areas to claim asylum are largely being refused. But they are not removed and are left, in effect, in limbo."Soran Hamarash, 35, an Iraqi Kurd refugee based at the Kurdish Cultural Centre in Kennington, south London, said his countrymen were being forced into exile by the international embargo against Iraq and that most wanted ultimately to return."Ninety-nine per cent of Iraqi Kurdish people here support the war That's the sad reality. They are looking forward to that and the misery ending so that they can go home," he said.. The Law Society has wasted up to £200,000 in fees paid to lawyers and architects working on grandiose plans to build a £40m headquarters that were rejected by its ruling council. But the solicitors' ruling body has rejected the project, arguing that it is too expensive and too luxurious a design. One council member objecting to the plan said it would become a target for terrorism, while another criticised the timing of the development at the "peak of a property boom".In council papers, released by the Law Society of England and Wales, the plans include a building of 122,000 square feet on a development known as Warwick Gates, two miles outside Leamington Spa.The documents reveal that the Law Society has already incurred £189,500 costs, mostly in consultancy fees. These include £17,000 for the services of a project manager, £10,000 to a solicitor and £30,000 to an architect.

Some £117,500 due for for property consultancy is contingent upon the Law Society completing a "legally binding contract for the purchase of a building". Now that Warwick Gates has been shelved, the property consultants are expected to resubmit their bill.A Law Society spokesman said: "Council has approved an increase in regulation staff. The senior management team are working to identify the necessary additional accommodation in the Midlands."Law Society leaders had tried to persuade council members that more space was needed to accommodate additional lawyers recruited to beef up its regulatory role. The council has already committed an additional £21m over three years for tightening regulation and inspection of law firms.Janet Paraskeva, chief executive of the Law Society, who supported the £40m plan, acknowledges that there "would be a large financial outlay at first". But she believed, in the long term, that the scheme would prove to be cost effective.Council members had also expressed concerns that if the Government decided to remove the Law Society's right to self-regulation, the project could become a white elephant. There was no guarantee, the council said, that ministers would compensate the Law Society for the loss of its latest investment.But Ms Paraskeva told a ruling council meeting in December that the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine of Lairg, had "no immediate plans" to end self-regulation. She said the "parliamentary secretary to the Lord Chancellor's Department had recently said the legal profession should be independent and self-regulating"..