The outgoing British ambassador to Baghdad increased pressure on the Government today to save scores of Iraqi interpreters, who fear they will be killed when British forces are withdrawn.

Dominic Asquith, who is coming to the end of his one-year tour, said that Britain owed locally employed Iraqi staff an enormous debt for their work.

“Our operations here are hugely dependent on the local population who have worked with us,” he told the BBC’s Today programme. “I have huge regard for what they have done.”

After revelations in The Times that no exceptions were to be made to help the 91 interpreters and other staff working for the British forces, the Government ordered a policy review, which is due to report back in autumn.

Since then, one interpreter who had worked for the British has been kidnapped, tortured and killed by Shia militiamen in Basra. His brother, who still works for the Army, has been threatened and fears for his life.

Mr Asquith insisted that he did not want to second guess what ministers would decide, but his remarks are bound to increase the pressure on Whitehall to reverse its policy.

“Because of the importance we attach to that, I know that people are looking closely at this in London and I am not going to predict what the outcome is,” he said. “But I have the very greatest regard for them.”

Mr Asquith said that Britain took its responsibilities towards its staff very seriously and provided a “very high level of care” to local employees.

The Times has learnt that the embassy’s own Iraqi staff in Baghdad have also been affected by the violence. In one instance earlier this year an Iraqi working in the visa section was abducted and later released. She then received death threats from her kidnappers because of her work at the embassy. She was unable to return home and had to live in quarters on the embassy compound. Work has now been found for her at a British embassy in the Gulf.

Britain’s policy rethink has been influenced by the behaviour of other coalition members in Iraq. When Denmark withdrew its forces from southern Iraq this summer it also granted asylum to 60 local employees and their families.

The US government has also said that it will give former US Government employees priority when it opens its doors to 7,000 Iraqis this year.

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