Britain was accused yesterday of abandoning 91 Iraqi interpreters and their families to face persecution and possible death when British forces withdraw. The Times has learnt that the Government has ignored personal appeals from senior Army officers in Basra to relax asylum regulations and make special arrangements for Iraqis whose loyal services have put their lives at risk.
| Someone needs to send the correct government minister a white feather. |
One interpreter, who has worked with the Army since 2004 and wanted to start a new life in Britain after British forces pull-out was told by Downing Street that he would receive no special favours and to read a government website.
There is mounting evidence of a campaign by militants to target “collaborators” as British forces prepare to leave. Hundreds of interpreters and other locally engaged staff working for the coalition have been kidnapped, tortured and murdered over the past four years.
Armed with a glowing reference from his commander, Major Pauric Newland, stating that his life would be in danger once British forces left, A Kinani made a personal appeal to Tony Blair, during his last visit to Iraq as Prime Minister in May. His letter was handed to Ruth Turner, a former No 10 adviser, and a reply sent on June 22 by Nick Banner, a former foreign policy adviser. Mr Banner informed him that he is not eligible for asylum. He suggested that he went to a third country and applied for a visa and advised him to look at a website for help.
| “This is cowardly,” Mr Kinani The Times. “The British make us easy food near the lion’s mouth.” |
“This is cowardly,” Mr Kinani The Times. “The British make us easy food near the lion’s mouth.”
Last month Denmark granted asylum to 60 former Iraqi staff and their families before its forces withdrew from the south. The US has said it will take in 7,000 Iraqis this year, including former employees.
But Britain has so far refused to make an exception. The Ministry of Defence and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said yesterday that Iraqi employees would receive no special help applying for asylum. “Anyone who is seeking to apply for refugee status must do so from within the United Kingdom. There is no exception to that,” said a Home Office spokesman. “Their cases will be dealt with on a case by case basis against the criteria of the 1951 Refugee Convention.” Senior politicians and serving officers have appealed to the Government to reconsider and there are hints that some ministers are in favour of resettling former Iraqi employees. One senior British officer in Iraq also hinted that Whitehall was beginning to feel the pressure for a U-turn.
William Hague, Shadow Foreign Secretary, said: “As Britain reduces its military presence in Iraq, we ought to look to the safety of those who have risked their lives to help us.” David Winnick, a senior Labour MP, said: “I would hope that the authorities here would be no less generous than the Danes.”
Even former British employees who have escaped from Iraq feel abandoned. Loay Mohammad, a British Army interpreter who fled to Syria in March, said that the British now wanted nothing to do with him. “When I went to the embassy in Damascus, they would not even let me through the door,” he told The Times from the Syrian capital. “When I run out of money in a few weeks time I will be forced to go home. That day I will become one of the dead.”
The British position was criticised yesterday by human rights groups. Tom Porteous, the director of Human Rights Watch in the UK, said the Government should reverse its policy. “The UK has a very clear moral and humanitarian obligation to assist those who have worked for them in Iraq,” he said. |