Iraqi employees roundup
A collection of media coverage so far of what’s happening to the Iraqi employees and their families is below the fold. (Thanks to Chris Brooke). People should feel free to cut and paste the list into their own blogs if they like.
The campaign is continuing. Please remember that this is about a wider group than the 91 interpreters that the media has largely focussed on.
If you’re able to help, here’s a few things you could do:
- Watch the video.
- Write to your MP. Ask them to refer your concerns to the Home Office, Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence.
- Let us know if you get a response.
- Join the list of supporters.
- Spread the word. If you have a blog, why not help yourself to one of Unity’s lovely blog banners?
- Sign the petition.
The responses from MPs currently look like this:
Conservatives (1):
Anne Milton
Labour (14):
Celia Barlow
Hugh Bayley
Wayne David
Frank Dobson
Jim Fitzpatrick
Ian Gibson
Helen Goodman
Patricia Hewitt
Sadiq Khan
David Lammy
Chris Mole
Andrew Smith
Dr Rudi Vis
Paul Truswell (via Ian Clenshaw)
Lib Dems (3):
John Barrett
Lynn Featherstone
Robert Smith
If you’ve received a reply from your MP, blog it, let me know and I’ll link to you from the list. Anyone not having a blog can send the reply here and I’ll reproduce it if you like.
More from Dan: Two teenage quislings.
Here’s the media coverage roundup. Any more links would be gratefully received.
The Times, August 7: Abandoned – the 91 Iraqis who risked all
Britain was accused yesterday of abandoning 91 Iraqi interpreters and their families to face persecution and possible death when British forces withdraw.
The Times, August 7: Interpreters beg for asylum as militants show them no mercy
Holes were drilled into his hands and knees before both legs were broken and acid poured over his face. Finally, the 30-year-old Iraqi was shot in the head. His crime? To work as an interpreter for the British military in Basra.
The Times, August 7, ‘If we stay when the British troops pull out, then the militia will kill us’
Married with a one-year-old daughter, R. Mageed is desperate to escape the fear and intimidation he suffers because of his job as an interpreter.
The Times, August 7: Do the Right Thing
Interpreters working for the British Government and the British Army in Iraq risk their lives every day. Whether or not their duties put them in danger from bullets or roadside bombs, they are demonised and remorselessly hunted by extremist militias who accuse them of colluding with the enemy.
BBC, August 7: Interpreters ‘abandoned’ in Iraq
Iraqi interpreters who have risked their lives to help UK forces will not get asylum, a report has claimed.
The Mirror, August 8: Iraq interpreters left to face death squads
Iraqi interpreters who risked their lives to help British forces have been abandoned by the Government, supporters say.
The Mirror, August 8: Desertion a disgrace
They risked their lives to help Britain’s folly in Iraq – and now they have been abandoned.
The Times’ letters, August 8: We must not abandon our Iraqi interpreters
I remember one interpreter refusing to leave the team of British soldiers because “they were his friends and would not abandon him if he was in troubleâ€Â.
The Sun, August 8: Death sentence
These brave Iraqi interpreters played a vital intelligence role which has saved the lives of Our Boys.
The Times, August 8: Brown intervenes over the Iraqi interpreters denied political asylum
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 Times, August 9: Bond of Trust
Britain’s incontrovertible duty is to stand behind these employees of the Crown. They need guarantees now, before the pullback, not the unconvincing drone of the Defence Secretary Des Browne’s promise yesterday to “move at the appropriate pace to get this policy right†and inform ministers some time in the autumn.
Adam LeBor, August 9: Save those interpreters; it’s the right thing to do
Here’s some advice for Gordon Brown as he decides whether 91 Iraqi interpreters and their families will likely live or die. Open your own book, Courage: Eight Portraits, and re-read the chapter on Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat in Nazi-occupied Budapest in 1944.
The Times: August 9: Britain employs 600 Iraqis who might need asylum, not 20,000
Six hundred Iraqis would be eligible to settle in Britain if asylum regulations were relaxed for those now working for British Forces.
Guardian, August 9: ‘Treat us like you would your own’
‘I work in a place in Iraq that has many problems with terrorists. The evil men who shoot and bomb civilians put people like me at the top of their hit list. I know I will remain a collaborator in their eyes, even though I am 1,000% more patriotic than the insurgents.’
Guardian, August 9: Translator was given asylum by tribunal
An Iraqi translator was granted asylum this year in a case that has significant implications for the government’s refusal to give special treatment to people who say they could be killed if abandoned by British troops, the Guardian can reveal.
Independent, August 9: Britain’s responsibility for those who have fled Iraq
There are so many dimensions to the tragedy of Iraq that it is perhaps understandable that not all of them get the coverage they deserve. Until recently, that was true of the refugee crisis generated by the conflict and its aftermath. Now, however, one aspect of that crisis has become headline news – the fate of Iraqi interpreters serving with British armed forces.
The Mirror, August 9: A just cause
These 91 brave men face certain death at the hands of militants, who accuse them of being collaborators for working as interpreters for the British army.
The Mirror, August 9: Brown orders sanctuary for Iraqi aids
All 91 Iraqi interpreters refused fast-track asylum in Britain are to get sanctuary after Gordon Brown yesterday promised to look again at their cases.
The Times’ letters, August 10: Putting Iraqi interpreters’ plight in context
I hope that the Iraqis who helped the British Forces do not become victims of institutional xenophobia and Nimbyism. If they do, British troops are unlikely to enjoy the selfless support of locals the next time that the Government launches them off on a foreign adventure.
The Times, August 11: ‘Interpreters for the British will be killed if they are left behind’
In the eyes of the Iraqi insurgents, Maissar Talib is a traitor. To the coalition forces, his colleagues for four dangerous years, the young Iraqi interpreter is a hero who risked his life to help them.
Simon Heffer, 11 August: If anyone merits asylum, these men do
Whatever the rights and wrongs of the Iraq war, we at least owe a duty of care to those Iraqis who have put their own lives in danger by assisting us in the enterprise.
The Times, August 11: Prepared to stay and work to the end – despite the dangers
M. al-Saraj signed up to work for the British in Basra on March 21, 2003, two days after the invasion. It makes him, he believes, Britain’s first and longest-serving interpreter in Iraq.
The Times, August 11: Interpreters caught in the middle
As the interpreter translated for a British major the words of an Iraqi police officer, he could hear other policemen muttering about him in Arabic. “Spy†and “traitorâ€Â, they said.
The Times’ letters, August 11: Take in interpreters
I recall that the British Nationality Act 1948 conferred a full British passport and consequent right to reside here for persons (and their families) who had been employed in Crown Service overseas.
The Times, August 11: A harsh fate awaits all collaborators
Will the British Army’s Iraqi interpreters be left to swing when we withdraw from Basra?
Philip Sands, August 12: Why, now, are we so bothered about the translators?
Why so much fuss, suddenly? For years Iraqis who worked with the British Army as interpreters have been hunted down and executed by death squads. No one in the UK government or military seemed too concerned about it. There were no offers of asylum or promises of safe passage to the UK. Now with the British on the brink of pulling out more soldiers, London is suddenly huffing and puffing, claiming to be taking the matter “very seriously”. They would not want to “fail in their duty of care” to respected Iraqi employees, after all. In truth, the British have consistently betrayed and mistreated their Iraqi staff and they continue to do so on a shameful scale.
The Independent, August 12: They put their lives at risk to serve us. Now they’re being left behind
Iraq’s deputy Foreign Minister has accused Britain of shirking its responsibilities. Amid a growing controversy, the UK government is refusing to consider more than a handful of Iraqis for asylum who have worked for British forces in southern Iraq. The UK stands accused of being willing to leave them to their fate as it prepares to pull out of Iraq.
The Independent, August 12: ‘The British don’t bother to guard my daughter’
A year after starting as an interpreter with the British Army in Basra, Hula was dead. She was raped and beheaded, her corpse dumped in a nondescript, rubbish-strewn part of the city.
Sunday Herald, August 12: Sentenced to death
THE “AAMEEL” are the pariahs of Iraq. The Sunnis want to kill them. The Shias want to kill them. Even the Iraqi police see them as traitors. That’s what the Arabic word “aameel” translates as: traitor, agent or collaborator. It is used to describe the ordinary, civilian Iraqis who decided to work for coalition forces – the US and UK armies. The aameel have become the easiest targets for insurgents and religious extremists, and they have died in their droves.
Telegraph, August 14: 60 Iraqi interpreters murdered working for UK
Up to 60 Iraqi interpreters working for British forces in southern Iraq may have been murdered by insurgent death squads – more than twice as many as had previously been feared.
The Times’ letters, August 15: Interpreters’ future
For as long as military linguistic training remains underfunded, and for as long as we cannot predict with any certainty where the British Army will be launched next, we will be dependent on local talent. For those reasons we must look after those who risk their lives for the Crown and for us.
The Times, August 15: This is the story of two brothers who worked for the British: one is dead, the other fears for his life.
Mohammad’s body was found dumped in wasteland on the outskirts of Basra. His killers had burnt cigarettes into his back, broken one of his hands and legs and shot him three times in the head and twice in the chest. His crime: to have worked as an interpreter for the British in Iraq.
The Times, August 16: Ambassador praises work of Iraqi interpreters
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.
The Times, August 17: What’s Arabic for ‘we’ll stand by you’?
Standing in a Danish cornfield last week, a young Iraqi interpreter described to me what it feels like to be branded as a collaborator: the menacing stares, the neighbours who shun you in the street and spit as you pass, the threatening notes pushed under the door at midnight promising death to traitors, the isolation and the terror.
The Times, August 17: Britain has a moral duty to Iraqi staff, says Baghdad envoy
Gordon Brown came under renewed pressure yesterday to grant asylum to Iraqis working for the British after the British Ambassador in Baghdad paid an emotional tribute to their courage and dedication.
The Times, August 18: Action This Day
It is ten days since Downing Street promised an “urgent review†of Britain’s cold-shouldering of Iraqis whose lives are in danger because of their services to the Crown. The Prime Minister, it was announced, had demanded an explanation from the Home Office. Presumably that “explanation†has by now been furnished. Downing Street may now know that Home Office “operational guidance notes for Iraq†already exist � and that they state that Iraqis seeking asylum in the UK “may claim that as a result of their work for the UN, NGOs or foreign contractors . . . they face a real risk of being targeted by insurgentsâ€Â.
The Times, August 21: Sectarian militias seek revenge on interpreters’ family and friends.
As blows from the metal pipe rained down on him and burning cigarettes were stubbed out on his head, Mohammed continued to deny that he was an interpreter for the British Army in Basra.
Posted on August 21st, 2007 at 2:01pm under Activism, Iraq, Iraqi interpreters and employees, UK politics
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CBS News’ ‘Letter From London’
“Britain is shaming itself.
Its army came to Iraq, recruited local interpreters and others to help in its war effort, and is now abandoning them.
Insurgent death squads view those who help the British as traitors; by refusing to offer asylum, the U.K. is condemning them and their families to rape, torture, exile and murder.”
Full story here :
Letter From London
It’s not just our government abandoning their Iraqi employees as this article by George Packer published in March in The New Yorker clearly shows: Betrayed: The Iraqis who trusted America the most.
BTW, great job with the links, Justin, thanks!
That’s brilliant, Justin- thanks so much. Although reading any one of those stories gets very depressing.
Okay, things move. Lynne Featherstone (Liberal Democrat, Wood Green and Hornsey, my MP) a) will co-host a speaker meeting at Portcullis House in October for us. She also asked me for a short document on the practicalities of withdrawal based on what I’ve been hearing from soldiers and ex-soldiers who hired some of the Iraqis, and has undertaken to forward that to Jacqui Smith.
When I went into the meeting with her, the first thing she said was ‘The letters, eh? We (MPs) have all been having a lot of them and we’ve been writing to the Home Office about it.’
Ed Vaizey (Conservative, Wantage) has emailed me to say ‘my support is unconditional’. He will co-sponsor the meeting at Portcullis House in October and is prepared to make public statements on our behalf.
Alistair Darling (Labour, Edinburgh South West, Chancellor of the Exchequer) wrote to Robert Sharp (http://www.robertsharp.co.uk )
to say:
‘He said that he believed “events have moved on” since I had written,
but he would investigate further and write to me again.’
Good news: if that was a brush off we wouldn’t have that commitment to ‘investigate further’. Excellent work by Robert.
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[...] who have lent their support to Dan Hardie’s “We Can’t Turn Them Away†campaign, whilst Chicken Yoghurt provides an invaluable compendium of newspaper articles on the subject, as well as a list of MPs [...]
[...] who have lent their support to Dan Hardie’s “We Can’t Turn Them Away†campaign, whilst Chicken Yoghurt provides an invaluable compendium of newspaper articles on the subject, as well as a list of MPs [...]