The Government will make no decision for several months on the plight of Iraqi interpreters working with the British army in Basra, the Defence Secretary warned this morning.

Numerous interpreters have been kidnapped, tortured and killed by Iraqi militiamen who accuse them of collaboration with their country's occupiers. The threat is so grave that the Danish Government recently flew all 60 of its interpreters back to Denmark when its troop contingent left Iraq.

Last night, after The Times highlighted the plight of the 91 Iraqis working as translators for the British, Gordon Brown raised hopes by promising a review of Britain's current refusal to treat the interpreters as a special case when considering their claims to be granted asylum in Britain.

But today, Des Browne played down the prospects of an early, positive resolution for the men and their families, and warned that it will be autumn before any decision is made.

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

Multimedia

• Video: the online war

• Pictures: Life in Iraq

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

Related Links

• Analysis: why Iraqi claims unsettle Brown

• Soldiers outraged that interpreters rebuffed

• ‘If we stay the militia will kill us’

"People who do interpreting work believe themselves to be particularly [more] vulnerable than other people do," said Mr Browne.

"That's why the Prime Minister has made it clear that we will review how best to [carry out] our duty of care to these people. That's in hand, I have a responsibility on that, as does the foreign secretary and we will report to ministers in the autumn."

Speaking to the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Mr Browne also warned that interpreters who have already had their claims for asylum in Britain turned down will almost certainly not have their cases reviewed.

Whitehall officials are understood to fear that granting asylum to the translators will set a precedent that might open the floodgates to thousands more claims.

Mr Browne told the BBC that about 20,000 Iraqis had helped British forces since 2003 - an increase on the 15,000 quoted by the Home Office last night.

"The challenge that we face here is quite complex," said Mr Browne. He went on that the government would "move at the appropriate pace" to get its policy right in relation to duty of care "to all of those whom we have a responsibility to".

He said: "We will do what we can in the meantime, as we continue to do, to keep those people who we think are under immediate threat safe."

It 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 Tony Blair’s decision not to grant asylum to translators, despite the demands from leading military figures and politicians from all parties that the Government should meet a moral obligation to Iraqis who have served Britain.

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