Pressure mounted on Gordon Brown yesterday to allow Iraqi interpreters working for British troops to settle in Britain as Liberal Democrats called for swift action to protect them.

The Lib Dem conference passed an emergency motion supporting calls for Britain to offer asylum to Iraqis, and their families, who are working for British Forces and for immediate steps to help those in danger.

Diana Wallis, a Lib Dem MEP, received unanimous backing from the conference after saying that Britain had a moral obligation to stand by local interpreters whose lives were at risk through their work for British troops.

Government officials expect a decision imminently on the outcome of the review begun by Mr Brown last month. It comes after The Times highlighted the anger among Iraqi interpreters after the Ministry of Defence refused their pleas for asylum.

Hundreds of Iraq interpreters rebuffed by UK

Nearly half of applications to settle in Britain have been rejected by the MoD already despite safety fears

BACKGROUND

• Story of brothers who worked for the British

• I’ve no regrets, says interpreter

• What’s Arabic for ‘we’ll stand by you’?

• Abandoned: the 91 Iraqis who risked all

Whitehall sources have told The Times that they expect the review will offer asylum to some Iraqi interpreters but discussions are continuing over the criteria to be used and the numbers and roles of locally employed staff who would qualify.

Opening a brief debate at the conference, Ms Wallis described the plight of an Iraqi Christian living in East Yorkshire who returned to Iraq and worked for British Forces. After he quit, he and his family fled to Syria in fear for their lives. They were imprisoned, abused and returned to Iraq, where they went into hiding. She did not identify the man.

Ms Wallis, who is the president of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting, said that Iraqi translators were at particular risk because they were sometimes present when British troops interrogated suspected insurgents. She said: “So, of course, they are marked by those who know they have assisted in such incidents.”

She attacked the Government for not acting immediately, saying that the United States, Denmark, Norway and other countries had offered asylum to their locally employed staff.

“We have a moral obligation to these people who helped our forces,” Ms Wallis said.

She was supported by James Keeley, a conference delegate, who said: “The decision to work alongside foreign armies occupying your country must be a very difficult one to take.

“It is an absolute fact that inside the bloody chaos that is Iraq, the people who have been working alongside our soldiers are seen as collaborators. And in the minds of the various militias, collaborators deserve to die. If you work with the West you face a certain and brutal death.

“Interpreters are in an uniquely vulnerable position. They are the eyes and the ears of our troops. They are visible, they are on the front line, they are present at the arrests and the interrogations and without them the military could not operate.” The motion was supported unanimously.

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