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From The Times

August 8, 2007

Brown intervenes over the Iraqi interpreters denied political asylum

An Iraqi interpreter translates for a member of the British Military Police

Francis Elliott, Greg Hurst and Michael Evans

Gordon Brown has ordered an urgent review into the plight of 91 Iraqi translators abandoned by Britain to persecution and death as a political campaign in favour of granting them asylum gathered pace.

The Prime Minister has demanded an explanation for a decision to deny them any special favours, which aides insist that he knew nothing about.

He will now consider whether to overturn Tony Blair’s decision, amid growing demands from leading military figures and politicians from all parties that the Government should meet a moral obligation to Iraqis who have served Britain.

It also emerged yesterday that bitter squabbling between the Ministry of Defence, the Home Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in recent months lies behind the decision, which has left the interpreters and their families abandoned as a significant British withdrawal draws closer.

Baroness Amos, the Leader of the Lords, told peers in April that ministers were looking at how translators might be given asylum.

But, as The Times disclosed yesterday, No 10 wrote to one interpreter on June 22, telling him that he would receive no special favours despite a glowing reference from his military commander. Instead the interpreter, A. Kinani, was given a website address and the advice to travel to a third country to apply for a visa.

One senior Whitehall source, referring to the departmental disagreements, told The Times: “The Government as a whole needs to find a way forward on this.”

Another explained the reluctance of the Home Office to give special asylum considerations to the translators by referring to the hundreds of other Iraqis working for different branches of the Government. “If staff working for the MoD, why not the FCO, Dfid [Department for International Development] — then NGOs?” the source said.

The interpreters’ plight provoked anger at Westminster and in military circles. Keith Vaz, the Labour MP and chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, said in a letter to The Times today: “It is in Britain’s moral and strategic interest to hold its reputation as a country that does not abandon those who have staked so much in support of British military operations.”

His view was echoed by William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, who said: “To abandon these people to their fate would be unacceptable.”

Damian Green, the Conservatives’ spokesman on immigration, said that anyone whose life was at risk because of work that they had done for Britain must have a “strong case” for asylum.

Lord Fowler, the former Conservative Party chairman, said in another letter to The Times that Britain owes a clear duty to those who have risked their own and their families’ lives to help. He adds that this duty should extend to Iraqis working for British journalists in Iraq.

There was also fury among soldiers who have served in Iraq. One Territorial Army officer who served in Basra in 2003-04 said that his interpreter was visited by militia who held a gun to the head of his wife and children. They threatened to kill him and his family if he did not leave in three days. “Yet when I took up his case with the Home Office, he was immediately turned down for refugee status,” Major Andrew Alderson, of the TA Queen’s Own Yeomanry, said.

General Sir Roger Wheeler, head of the Army between 1997 and 2000, was one of many former senior officers who supported the interpreters. “If they are seen to be working for the wrong side, their chances of survival are nil,” Sir Roger said.

Crispin Black, formerly a major in the Welsh Guards and now a security analyst, said: “When the forces of an occupying power leave a country, those who have worked for them face a high risk of retaliation. It is crucially important that we protect those who have helped us.”

A Home Office spokesman said last night: “We are extremely grateful for the service provided by locally employed staff in Iraq and take their security very seriously. We recognise that there are concerns about the safety of former employees. The Government keeps all such issues under review and will now look again at the assistance we provide.

“The total number of Iraqis who have worked for the Government since 2003 with a claim for assistance could be at least 15,000. We therefore need to consider the options carefully.”

send them to gitmo for a vacation

hank hill, buffalo, usa/ny

On reading this only 91 seems acceptable but the figure jumps to 15000 whoa hold on.Why do we always have too have the morals and the rest of the world dosen t.
I would talk about the postwar English retreat from the cities that they so steadfastly held under the German Blitz but were ethnically forced from under decades of govtment liberalisum

John L, Liverpool,

Presumably some faceless (and heartless) immigration officer looked at the applications from these individuals and decided they didnt meet the guide lines for entry..."more than my jobs worth". Now the higher authority is involved and a measure of common sense and humanity can be applied we have a more sensible approach.
We allow questionable Russian crooks with large fortunes to come here and forment trouble but hesitate at people who have helped our troops to their own detriment. Sometimes I am not proud to be British.

mike gee, bournemouth, uk

The british are traiders again...as they did in Burma with the Karens which get killed since decades after the british betrayed them, they do the same again in Irak! Sham on your government!!

Andi, Basel, Switzerland

Sir, If the Government is unable to do the right thing by the Gurkhas, Veterans or indeed our current Armed Forces how could you possibly expect them to do the right thing by the Iraqi Interpreters. On withdrawal from Aden we abandoned the many locals who had served us well down the years and recently the Government, in the shape of the Honours Committee, has snubbed the Government and Peoples of Malaysia who wish to present a Medal (The Pingat Jasa Malaysia Medal) to the veterans who fought the stabilise their independance during a difficult period.

Noel T Nash MBE, Lisburn, Northern Ireland

whilst there is a moral argument to be made in favour of granting these people leave to live in the uk, through the mounting indignant hysteria, we should remember two things. firstly, these people made a conscious decision to undertake the work in the clear knowledge that the violent psychopaths who call themselves islamic, but by their actions clearly are not, would seek retribution for their perceived collaboration. secondly, if current media reports are to be believed, they did not act out of loyalty to the coalition cause, or a belief in its mission in iraq, rather out of a very nice wedge.

will richards, worcester,

This is typical Home Office obstructionism all over again. The original argument will be the old chestnut that to grant the interpreters asylum would be "repercussive" (hence the reference to Iraqis working in FCO, DfID and NGOs in the Home Office statement.)

But the rebuttal of this argument is that Iraquis working for FCO, DfID, and NGOs are not in anything like such imminent personal danger from local militias and revenge-seekers as are the MOD/Army interpreters.

david orchard, guildford, uk

We are repeatedly told that we have a shortage of people in the UK who can speak Arabic and/or other Middle Eastern languages. Surely jobs can be found in the UK for translators in the security services or in educational establishments?

Michael Julien, Weybridge, UK

Doesn't Britain have a tradition of abandoning and failing to support their assets?
If these interpreters have the same luck as the Gurkhas it will only take another 52 years before the government decides to help them.
By the way, I also feel let-down, betrayed and unsupported by my own country, and I'm as British as they come!

Elliott Cassin, Cheltenham,

What is the UK coming to when something as basic as this has to have the PM intervene? Has the country got no morals left? I am ashamed to be British.

Gerry Watts, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

The Government's attitude in this whole fiasco has been pusillanimous and thoughtlessly bureaucratic in the worst possible way. It is hard to understand Government employees turning down the cases mentioned in the article and then going home at night safe and sound to their families: did they think they had done a good day's work? Did they not feel a twinge of guilt?

CC Watson, Aberdeen, Scotland

It is a reflection of our integrity that we had to rely on media reports to raise, highlight and embarrass the government stance towards these interpreters. Had they been treated properly in the first instance our reputation of being fair and just would have been sustained. Now, reacting to media/public pressures, it just goes to show the distance between where we are and where we should be. Thank you Gordon for stepping in, and shame on the bureaucrats who chose to create this unneeded problem.

Farrukh, Woking, UK

making my way back to Calaise recently i saw, some 7/10 miles out of calaise, several indviduals/some small groups heading north-dare i say towards Calaise? All looking forlorn cold wet and no doubt hungry- obviously finding the northern climate different!
A lorry pulled over some way up in front of my car, from the side of the lorry 3/4 persons jumped out and ran down the embankment- now some 3/4 miles from Calaise
A police crew were attending to 3/4 persons, stopped in the central reservation to whom blankets had been given.- approx 2 miles from Calaise.
One should not make assumptions but ........?
Perhaps those who have served us so well, now still in Iracq, should at least be provided with transport!

mike cassidy, oxford, england

There seems to be a wide streak of indifference to those who give their all, by this Labour government, not least to our own troops. Shortages of essential equipment, to a soldier is a form of betrayal. But then there are few winners in war.

Brian Seals, Scarborough, Nth Yorks, England

How ironic that we are asked to give assylum to people from a country who we 'freed from a tyrannical dictator' and turned into a 'free domocracy'. Its about time Blair and Bush faced war-cime charges for this farce.

Rod Munch, Northampton, UK

More bungling buffoons, yet we allow in Idi Amin's Son who runs a murderous gang, and huge amounts of people from Somalia, when did they join the EU? (joke)
Yet people that risk their lives to help our brave British troops and maybe save some of their lives are told to visit a website time to start sacking the useless civil servants in the Dept of Immigration and Ministrers in charge and let them face the horrors on the frontline of Iraq, they have let in 1000's of immigrants with the same business plan etc.

Andrew Moore, Solihull, England

david orchard, guildford, uk

I think it's appalling that civil service clerrrrks should compromise the integrity and honour of the british people in whose name these Iraqis have been asked/encouraged to support our military and peace-keeping operations and contribute to the wellbeing and safety of our personnel in Iraq.
Why should we ever be trusted again?

Robert Neale, Salisbury, UK

Britain has a moral duty to these men and women; we should not abandon them.

Bjuid, Huddersfield, UK

Having worked in Basra during 2005 I know first hand how our Iraqi staff took great risks to work with us in the reconstruction effort of their country. They believed in a better future and so would come to work passing through both Iraqi and British checkpoints daily. There was always the threat of being found out by local militia, and then being kidnapped, and possibly murdered. Two staff were kidnapped but later released. Several are Christians and are at even greater risk., some having already fled to Jordan.

These Iraqi people stood up and said they want to make their country a better place. They said to the insurgents and detractors that they will take the risks and you can not stop us.

I am very sad that the hopes that we shared with the Iraqis has now evaporated. Basra is more dangerous than ever.

The British government should give special consideration to any applications for asylum that come from those Iraqis who worked for them. Follow the example of the Danish

S, Croydon, UK

Denying to help Iragi interpreters shows that Britain moral standards were at all time low and reflects that officials in British government are narrow-minded and untrustworthy.
Decay in moral standards has eaten away the old tradition of self-respect and sense of integrity. It's no wonder why the British Football Association and the Premier League have skin thick enough to welcome people of shady and openly corrupt character like Thaksin Shinawatra, the ex-prime minister of Thailand who was ousted by a military coup last September 19. The buyout of Manchester City football club by "Thaksin the square face" as he is known in Thailand last month obviously smeared the good name of Premier League. Thaksin is no better than Ferdinand Marcos in terms of corruption and all kinds of fraud in taxes, bribery and scalping construction companies doing government projects.
He topped all corrupt politicians around the world in making fast money while in political office.

Tatchai, Bangkok, Thailand

If anybody deserves asylum in Britain surely these people do.

john, Beijing (ex-London), China

â€œIf staff working for the MoD, why not the FCO, Dfid [Department for International Development] â€” then NGOs?â€

Yes, why not? these people have been a greater help to this country than all these other "Economic Migrants" we are accepting from Eastern Europe and Africa on a daily basis.

Brendan, Gloucester, UK

God Bless the Brits, We did not give carfull consideation to the Vietnamese who help us and left them to their fate

Brian M.Carroll, Cave Creek, USA

When you compare the treatment of these people who have risked their lives trying to help us and then been booted into touch and the dangerously stupid decision to ask for foreign nationals ,caught red handed training to kill our troops, to be allowed to come to britain is the politics of the lunatic asylum.

philip, Ipswich,

Genuine interpreters and translators must be protected, for they are impartial and merely produce true and faithful translations to the best of their ability. In Arabic, which is an esoteric language, full of innuendo and poetic licence, this is especially tricky. But the correspondence indicates that many so-called "interpreters" were also handling intelligence and propaganda work for the British military; if so, their position should be judged accordingly, and it is not suprising if they are viewed as collaborators by the other side. As the managing director of a leading translation company, I am deeply worried by the politicization of professional interpreters and translators in Iraq.

Bernard Silver, London, UK

Is it not ironic that the Government does so little to stop unwanted and undesirable migrants into this country and yet when faced with a few hundred people, who deserve a medal, they hesitate. The current rumpus over 'repatriating' the undesirables from Guantanemo puts the whole situation into perspective. Its quite simple, if a British Army Officer stands up and says 'this man/woman must be allowed to enter the UK' then that's good enough for me. Politicians should be irrelevant even the part timers - Defence Secretary - who dither and pontificate.

simon, uk,

Zappy should learn some history. The countries he mentions are, indeed, ex-colonies and the people had various rights regarding settling in Britain.

They were not seeking asylum as Iraqis are.

There is a very big difference.

As trhe why they are being treated so badly just look at the way they're behaving at home. If they had elected a stable government there would be no foreign troops there and they'd be more welcome abroad - if they still wanted to go.

Roger Tilbury, Worthing,

This is one of those cases where self-interest and doing what's right coincide. If we abandon these people, when they have risked their lives to help British soldiers, then who in future will be so foolish as to follow their example? Make no mistake, there will be other times in the future when we need the help of local people when our troops are sent overseas. We should take the long view.

Robert, Clevedon, UK

Of course help should be given to those who have supported this Country, like the Gurkhas for instance, particularly if they are prepared to integrate in the UK and accept our customs and practices.
Priority should be given to them and the present system of immigration held in abeyance until those who have entered the country illegally, together with those who conspire against our British way of life, have been returned to their countries of ethnic origin.

trevorjd, Torbay, UK

how many people came over to Britan from India after 1948, Cyprus? the ex colonies of Africa? Hong Kong?

Why are Iraqis being treated so bad everywhere withe the exception of the Scandinavian countries?

Zappy, Berkshire, U.K.

A petition to support the campaign for the Iraqi interpreters is at the 10 Downing Street website with over 500 signatures: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Iraqi-Employees/

CommonPlace Gent, London, UK