The Nether-World

Iraqi Employees: Another Letter To Your MP

2007-10-12T03:13:00.000+01:00

The campaign to persuade the Government to do the decent thing and grant asylum in the UK to those Iraqis who have risked their lives and those of their families by working in non-combat capacities for the armed forces and diplomatic services is growing and showing signs of progress. The Government has belatedly recognised that there is a problem but has done the barest minimum to solve the crisis. Its offer of a few quid to employees or asylum only if employees can prove they have worked for the British for 12 months is woefully inadequate and will mean that many Iraqi employees will fall through the cracks and be left in dire peril of the death squads. Richard Beeston, Diplomatic Editor of The Times explains the inadequacies succinctly:

Too little: The average compensation package envisaged for Iraqis would amount to a few thousand pounds. This will not cover the cost of moving a family from Iraq and resettling in a neighbouring country such as Jordan or Syria.
Too late: in the two months it has taken the Government to make its decision Iraqi staff have been killed, kidnapped and forced to flee the country. Final details of the package have still not been completed.
Too slow: The asylum process could take months or years to complete for Iraqi employees. Under the current arrangement only 300 can be processed a year by the Home Office.
Too complicated: The Government’s proposal is complicated and bureaucratic. The Danes airlifted all their locally engaged staff and their families from Iraq in one decisive move.
Unfair: Iraqi interpreters often worked for six-month periods, the normal tour of duty of a British army battalion in Iraq. Many have no written records of their service. Under the present arrangements many Iraqis who deserve help and are at risk will receive nothing.

Obviously much more needs to be done and the best way to get results is for as many of us as possible to write to our MPs and politely show them the seriousness of the problem and the shortcomings in the current Government position. From the recent meeting that was held at Portcullis House, it was apparent that there is cross-party support for a more extensive solution and some MPs are willing to help and eager to learn more. The first letter-writing campaign was very successful in getting the Government to change its policy (albeit not nearly far enough). Dan Hardie has put together a very helpful set of bullet points that can be included in a letter to your MP and also a useful template that can be adapted to make a more persuasive letter. Do please adapt this template to make your letter more personal as this will be much more effective than many identical letters. As always, please be courteous.

If you don't know who your MP is, you can find out here. Post is usually the best way to contact your MP but you can also use the excellent writetothem.com service. When you get a reply, please inform Dan via the comments on his blog post, or by email at danhardie.blog@gmail.com so that we can see which MPs we can work with, and which need persuading. Over to Dan:

Bullet points:

David Miliband’s Statement on ‘Iraq: Locally Recruited Civilians’ of 9th October stated that Britain will help to resettle- in the wider Middle East, or in the United Kingdom- Iraqis who can prove that they have worked for this country’s soldiers or diplomats for a continuous period of twelve months.

Hundreds of Iraqis have been targeted for assassination for having worked for this country. Some have worked for a period of twelve months exclusively for the British and can prove this. Some have not but have been pinpointed for murder anyway. We have a responsibility to save these people from being murdered for the ‘crime’ of working for the British.

There are a lot of local employees who fled their jobs before 12 months precisely because they had been targeted, or who did a 6-month tour for one British battalion and were then told to go and work for the Americans, or who did 12 months or more with interruptions, or who the Army didn't give proper documentation too.

Iraqi staff members must be given shelter not because of their provable length of service but according to whether they have been identified for murder by local death squads. This can be investigated on the spot by Army officers and referred rapidly to London: the process needs to start now.

Mr Miliband’s statement did not mention the families of Iraqi employees. As Iraqi militias also murder the families of their ‘enemies’, we must resettle our employees’ families as well. Mark Brockway, an ex-soldier who hired many Iraqis, estimates that we are talking about a maximum of 700 Iraqis to resettle: this country admits 190,000 immigrants net every year.

Iraqis have already been targeted for murder for having worked for this country. We will be shamed if we allow more to be killed for the same reason. Our soldiers, who are angry at this betrayal, and our diplomats, will be placed at risk if they gain a reputation for abandoning their local helpers.
Form letter:
(MP’s Name)
The House Of Commons
Westminster
London. SW1A 0AA.

Your full name and address.

Dear (MP’s Name)
As you will have read in the Times, Iraqis who have worked for British soldiers or diplomats are being targeted for murder by local militia. An unknown number have already been killed and more have been forced into hiding.
On October 9th, David Miliband’s statement on ‘Locally Recruited Civilians’ in Iraq said that Britain would offer assistance with resettlement for Iraqis who had worked with British forces, but only if they could prove that they had worked for us for 12 months or more. This is effectively leaving hundreds of Iraqis, who have risked their lives for this country’s forces, to the mercy of the death squads.
Mark Brockway, a former soldier who employed many Iraqis, told Channel Four News on 9th October that local staff often worked for six months for British units, during which time they were frequently identified as ‘enemies’ by the local militias. I believe that the Government has a direct responsibility for the safety of these people.
I feel that it is morally unacceptable that this country is following such a policy. I also believe it will endanger our soldiers and diplomats in Iraq and Afghanistan. Can I please ask you to write to the Foreign Office, and also to the Home Office which has charge of asylum policy, to ask why the Government is prepared to ignore the plight of hundreds of people who were placed at risk serving this country’s soldiers.
Yours sincerely

It might also be a good idea to ask your MP to sign the recently created Early Day Motion (EDM) tabled by Lynne Featherstone MP. It reads:

EDM 2057
IRAQI EMPLOYEES
09.10.2007
Tabled by: Featherstone, Lynne

That this House recognises the courage of Iraqis who have worked alongside British troops and diplomats in Southern Iraq, often saving British lives; notes that many such Iraqis have been targeted for murder by Iraqi militias in Basra, and that an unknown number have already been killed, whilst many others are in hiding; further recognises that many Iraqis who have worked for fewer than 12 months for the UK are threatened by death squads; and therefore calls upon the Prime Minister to meet the UK's moral obligations by offering resettlement to all Iraqis who are threatened with death for the `crime' of helping British troops and diplomats.

Thanks once again.

For those unfamiliar with this campaign, here are some pointers.

Tags: Middle East, We Can't Turn Them Away, Iraq, UK Armed Forces, Asylum, Refugees, Iraqi Interpreters,UK Politics

A Quick Write-up of Last Night's Meeting About Iraqi Employees

2007-10-10T16:56:00.000+01:00

This was a very interesting meeting and I'm glad I was able to attend. My only regret was that I didn't take any notes so this is largely from memory. First of all, much kudos to Dan Hardie for working so hard to make this meeting happen and for chairing it so well. The speakers at the meeting were:

Richard Beeston, senior Foreign Correspondent for ‘The Times’ newspaper

Mark Brockway, a former Warrant Officer in the Territorial Royal Engineers, who ran the British Army’s Quick Impact Reconstruction Projects in 2003 and who hired a great many Iraqi staff in 2003.

Ed Vaizey MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

Chris Bryant, Labour MP for the Rhondda

Lynne Featherstone MP, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for International Development

Andrew Alderson, banker responsible for reconstruction projects in Basra

Richard Beeston spoke about the important work Iraqi interpreters do for the military and also for journalists and diplomats. The Times has provided the best media coverage by far on the plight of Iraqi employees and the moral obligation Britain has to protect them. From Richard Beeston's speech it was evident that the plight of Iraqi employees is an issue close to his heart. He has reported on last night's meeting in today's edition of The Times with an excellent article that highlights the problems with David Miliband's offer in a concise way.

Serious shortcomings have been exposed in the Government’s plan to offer compensation or resettlement to hundreds of serving and former staff in Iraq.
During a discussion at the House of Commons last night, MPs and campaigners argued that the assistance package, announced by David Miliband in a written statement, was too little and too late.
The Government ordered a review two months ago, after The Times highlighted the plight of Iraqi interpreters working for the British who face persecution by insurgents for being “collaborators”.
The compensation package would offer existing or former staff who worked for the British for more than 12 months either a cash payment to help them to resettle in Iraq or the region, or the chance to move to Britain.
Read on

Mark Brockway spoke at some length on his experiences in Basra working with Iraqi interpreters. He was passionate about the problem and showed a Power Point presentation which outlined various aspects of the issue in great detail. He stressed the urgency of solving this issue now as former employees are in hiding while death squads tour the Basra region looking for them and threatening their families. Mark also relayed the close relationship military personnel have with their interpreters and recounted some incidences where they actually saved British lives. From his presentation and speech, Mark showed just how inadequate David Miliband's announcement is. It is impossible for many of the Iraqi employees to prove that they have been working for the British for 12 months because of the chaotic record keeping of the British. Added to this problem is the fact that many interpreters move to different employers. For instance, an interpreter may work for six months with a British regiment then move to work in a diplomatic capacity or translate for the Americans - and nearly always under a false name. Mr Brockway also highlighted the extreme difficulties of moving to Syria or Jordan in order to get asylum.

Conservative MP, Ed Vaizey stressed the cross-party support for the plight of Iraqi employees and how this is a moral issue rather than a political one. This sentiment was echoed by Labour MP,Chris Bryant and Lib Dem MP Lynne Featherstone. All three MPs acknowledged the important points about the danger of the '12 month' stipulation but that as frontbenchers they aren't free to criticise this without checking with their bosses, as it's an implicit commitment to a new policy. However, they all showed a keen interest to learn more and continue to campaign. Chris Bryant invited campaigners to email him with important points which ought to be raised and Lynne Featherstone drafted an Early Day Motion (EDM) for MPs to sign.

Andrew Alderson is a banker who was responsible for the allocation of funds for reconstruction projects in the Basra region. He has written a book on his experiences called Bankrolling Basra which has just shot up to the top of my list of books I want to read. Mr Alderson spoke of the problems he had in protecting the Iraqis he employed, particularly his personal assistant who was shot three times and left for dead while people close to her were murdered. She has now found asylum in Australia. She was further endangered by being visited by military personnel while recovering in a Basra hospital. This story outlined another part of the problem. If someone is wounded or killed while out on patrol with the British army, for instance, it is reported as such. However if an Iraqi employee is murdered on his or her way home, away from military or diplomatic installations, it is merely chalked up as just another murder in a lawless area.

There is a new website which has information about the campaign to grant asylum to Iraqi employees. It's called We Owe It To Them and it has details of the dangers faced by these people and their families. It is well worth viewing and supporting.

Among the people in the audience was an Iraqi exile, Mazin, who had worked for a Kuwaiti construction firm which constructed US bases. He gave a passionate speech on the difficulties in finding asylum and the horrors experienced by his friends and family. It was very moving and did much to ram home the message of the urgent need to solve this problem.

More bloggage on this from David Cole, Sunny Hundal in CiF, Yorkshire Ranter (I'll add the reports of other bloggers as I find them).

*UPDATE*

Here is a Radio Five clip with Dan Hardie explaining the inadequacies of the Government's current position on asylum for Iraqi employees of the British armed forces (courtesy of Ministry Of Truth).

For those unfamiliar with this campaign, here are some pointers.

Tags: Middle East, We Can't Turn Them Away, Iraq, UK Armed Forces, Asylum, Refugees, Iraqi Interpreters,UK Politics

Iraqi Employees - An Important Update

2007-10-09T04:53:00.000+01:00

There have been a few developments recently in the campaign to persuade our government to do the decent thing and grant asylum in the UK Iraqi employees of the British armed forces who are in danger of being tortured and killed. Let's start with the news that the Government seems to be responding to the pressure being put on it.

Iraqi interpreters and other key support staff who have risked their lives to work for Britain are to be allowed to settle in the United Kingdom, The Times has learnt.
Hundreds of interpreters and their families are to be given assistance to leave Iraq, where they live under fear of death squads because they collaborated with British forces. Those wishing to remain in Iraq or relocate to neighbouring countries will be helped to resettle.

Sounds good doesn't it? Except that it doesn't go anywhere near far enough and looks like being a classic case of New Labour smoke and mirrors trickery (remember the troop withdrawal announcement that wasn't what it seemed?). The timing was interesting to say the least, coming as it did just days after the US Senate approved an amendment by Senator Kennedy to a defence bill that will make it easier for America’s Iraqi friends to be allowed into the USA as refugees. The news also came before a meeting at Portcullis House where the plight of Iraqi employees will be discussed. Gordon Brown made a statement to Parliament in which he appeared to be heading in the right direction on this issue but provided few details.

Inadequate though it is, Brown's statement has at least brought the plight of Iraqi employees back onto the news agenda and today's meeting at Portcullis House will be interesting and I urge people to go if possible (I'm trying to juggle some other commitments so I can attend). Dan Hardie has done a sterling job of getting the campaign to this stage:

Meeting now in Portcullis House
And another announcement: the meeting on Iraqi Employees will take place on the same day (Tuesday 9th October) at the same time (7-9pm) with the same speakers in a changed venue very close to the original one: the Attlee Suite in Portcullis House (MPs’ own office block, opposite Parliament). The long-suffering and highly efficient Mette Kahlin will be standing outside the door of the old venue (Committee Room 14 in Parliament) pointing the way to the new venue, which is the Attlee Suite in Portcullis House. How do you get there? Walk to Parliament and it’s the very ugly building at the corner of Bridge Street and Victoria Embankment, facing Big Ben (or St. Stephen’s Tower, if you really must). If you get lost, which you won’t, ask one of the police officers, who are actually very helpful, or just look round for the biggest eyesore. It is unmissably hideous.
Poor Mette had the job, a couple of hours ago, of telling me that - despite the fact that she booked the room back in the first week of September, despite the fact that not double-booking rooms is a task open to the simplest person capable of using something like Outlook, despite the fact that a struggling provincial hotel could manage to avoid doing something like this- a Cabinet Minister claimed that she had previously booked the room and so we were bounced out. Oh, imagine my joy. It quite took the pleasure out of learning that I was a qualified physician [link added].
Salt in the wound: the Cabinet Minister in question is Hazel Blears. Silver lining: we can get TV crews in to film in the Attlee Suite, which we couldn’t in Committee Room 14. That’s Committee Room 14, our old venue. And of course our new venue is the Attlee Suite in Portcullis House.

With a little more pressure on the Government, it should be possible to get a more satisfactory solution for those Iraqis (all of them - and their families) who have risked their lives by working for the British army in non-combat capacities. For those unfamiliar with this campaign, here are some pointers.

Tags: Middle East, We Can't Turn Them Away, Iraq, UK Armed Forces, Asylum, Refugees, Iraqi Interpreters,UK Politics

Sycophancy Or Mere Idiocy?

2007-08-20T05:55:00.000+01:00

I realise that the Observer has recently become something of a Brownite propaganda sheet lately but this vomit-inducing article takes the biscuit:

I admit it. I have a secret, embarrassing crush on Gordon Brown. Actually, it's not that secret because as soon as I discovered it - right about the time he coolly chose not to wear a stetson to meet George W Bush - I started to confess it to everybody like an awkward case of athlete's foot. He's a real man, I said, a man who puts the tension into pensions. He's happy to holiday in Dorset. He's wonderful with children and bunnies. He's simply marvellous under pressure. Even the half-blindness and weird gabby thing he does with his jaw didn't seem to matter.
As it turned out, I was preaching to the converted. A quick poll of my friends revealed that an astonishing seven out of 10 also secretly fancied him or, at least, had had very un-Fife-like thoughts about him. 'He's a father of the nation,' cooed one gay friend, 'a father you'd secretly like to shag.' Other attractions included his cleverness, stony good looks, 'surly manner' and - from my mother - 'the determination to wear a suit at all times'.

Read on

Someone fetch me a bucket please.

Tags: Gordon Brown, NuLab, Media, UK Politics

A Sad Day For Democracy In Britain

2007-05-17T04:36:00.000+01:00

It's over! We now know for certain (barring the unexpected) who the next Prime Minister of the UK will be. There was never really any doubt about the outcome. The sad thing is that a much needed debate within the Labour party has been stifled by the Brown camp. Labour party members have been denied any say in who their leader will be and it was only the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) who got to decide, ignoring the views of the thousands of rank and file Labour supporters. I was realistic about John McDonnell's very slim chances of becoming the leader of the Labour party but I did think (wrongly it turns out) that he'd be able to get onto the ballot at least.

I made no secret of the fact that I supported John McDonnell who, in my opinion, offered a clear alternative to the New Labour/Tory domination over British politics, which has resulted in a lack of any meaningful debate. Now that John McDonnell has thrown in the towel after it became evident that there was no way for him to gather the necessary 45 votes to get onto the ballot, that debate will be delayed for another two years when I expect Labour to lose the next General Election because it has nothing new whatsoever to offer other than a continuation of 'Blairism' which everyday shows just what a bankrupt and failed ideology it is. For this reason the PLP went out of its way to prevent a challenge. I cannot believe that no heavy pressure was put on PLP members to vote for Brown. Just look at the figures; 308 nominations for Brown, 29 for John McDonnell. Realising that Brown would eventually win the contest, they voted in the only way that ensured they kept their privileged positions or gained new ones.

I think John McDonnell fought an honourable and inspiring campaign and behaved thoroughly decently throughout. I hope he continues to fight for those old Labour values he believes in which have been undermined by Blair and Brown in a decade of betrayal. I hope he also continues to fight for the now disenfranchised Labour party members who have been told in no uncertain terms just how little their views matter to the PLP. New Labour likes to portray itself as a party that offers choice, whether in health services or in education, but despite its rhetoric it offers no choice when it comes to selecting a leader. I doubt this page will remain long on the Labour website (via Blairwatch).
As Ringverse says:

The leader of this country was decided over a meal in an Islington restaurant in 1994.

We will now be treated to a coronation instead of a contest and this will be spun as some kind of victory for democracy when the opposite is the case. The anger amongst Labour party members is palpable. I'm not a member of the Labour party. I used to vote Labour before Blair took over and transformed the party so radically, and I was prepared to vote Labour again in the event of John McDonnell winning the leadership. If I was a member though, I think I would now be tearing up my membership card after realising the contempt that the PLP shows for ordinary party members. I wonder how many party members will be doing just that. Under Blair membership of the Labour party halved, it wouldn't surprise me at all if this trend continued under Brown.

Gordon Brown promised us a a "new kind of politics" when he takes over. I think we can now see that for the empty rhetoric it is.

Tags: Gordon Brown, John McDonnell, Labour Leadership, UK Politics