Iraqi Employees: A statement by the Prime Minister
Mr Speaker, I would also like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the work of our civilian and locally employed staff in Iraq, many of whom have worked in extremely difficult circumstances exposing themselves and their families to danger.
And I am pleased therefore to announce today a new policy which more fully recognises the contribution made by our local Iraqi staff who work for our armed forces and civilian missions in uniquely difficult circumstances.
Existing staff who have been employed by us for more than twelve months and have completed their work will be able to apply for a package of financial payments to aid resettlement in Iraq or elsewhere in the region, or – in agreed circumstances – for admission to the UK. And professional staff — including interpreters and translators — with a similar length of service who have left our employ since the beginning of 2005 will also be able to apply for assistance.
We will make a further written statement on the detail of this scheme this week.
I’ll wait for the details until commenting further as I’m sure will most people. I have to say though that I really, really, really don’t like the look of that ’staff who have been employed by us for more than twelve months and have completed their work‘ proviso. Don’t put that champagne on ice yet.
UPDATE: And this shouts out as well:
And professional staff — including interpreters and translators — with a similar length of service who have left our employ since the beginning of 2005 will also be able to apply for assistance.
I might be wrong but I’m guessing that excludes teenage laundry workers.
Posted on October 8th, 2007 at 4:44pm under Activism, Brown, Human rights, Iraq, Iraqi interpreters and employees
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Agreed, anytime a threshold like that is included it looks dodgy to me. The devil is in the detail as they say…
[...] This is a poor sop because of the ‘twelve months’ qualifier. It is unlikely most employees would be given contracts for anything approaching 12 months and this attempt by Brown to give the impression he cares is very poor. We are not impressed. [...]
It’s just twattery, isn’t it? My MPs (I get two, due to boundary changes, both Labour) were initially very pro and are now ‘look, it’s all sorted’… yet there are so many provisos in the statement as to make it practically worthless. Surely even the right-wing media will say that if we *have* to let in darkies, at least take the ones who’ve helped us?
Given the productive insurgency skills of Iraqis, I, for one, would like to have that productivity working for me.
/sarcasm off
They are treating asylum as if it is a gold watch or a knighthood, a reward for long service.