The Nether-World

The Government Tries To Wriggle Out Of Its Promise To Help Iraqi Employees

2007-12-12T07:36:00.000Z

This is a quick update on the on-going campaign to persuade the Government to grant asylum in the UK to former Iraqi employees. Back in August, Gordon Brown responded to pressure for the Government to do the right thing and grant asylum to Iraqi employees who had worked for the British armed forces and diplomatic mission in Iraq. He said that the Government would fulfill its “duty of care” to those who had served with British troops and announced a review of the Government’s assistance to locally engaged staff in Iraq. In October David Miliband announced in a Ministerial statement the elements of a scheme based on that review. It was (and still is) woefully inadequate and helps only a few of the Iraqi employees who are in very real danger of being murdered by death squads.

The scheme only grants asylum to those former employees who could prove that they had worked for the British after 1st January 2005 and for 12 months or more. This excluded many of the Iraqi employees who had worked for the British before that date or who worked for less than that period, often leaving their jobs at the end of a British battalion’s six-month tour. As Richard Beeston, Diplomatic Editor of The Times, said, it was "too little, too late, too slow, too complicated" and "unfair".

Now it seems that the Government is trying to wriggle out of even that very small concession:

More than half the Iraqi interpreters who applied to come to live in Britain have had their applications rejected, drawing accusations that the Government is “wriggling out” of its promise to help former Iraqi employees.
The Times has learnt that 125 of the 200 interpreters who took up the offer to resettle in Britain have failed to meet the strict criteria laid down for eligibility.
The revelation challenges Gordon Brown’s pledge in August that the Government would fulfil its “duty of care” to those who had served with British troops.
In three cases seen by The Times, former Iraqi employees were told that they were ineligible because of “absenteeism”.
The interpreters claim that they risked their lives to serve the British and are living in constant danger of reprisal from Shia militias. If they did not show up for work, it was because they were fleeing for their lives. They said that they now felt betrayed by the Government.
Read on

Well I can't say I'm that surprised. The Government has been dragging its feet over this issue since it was first raised and only public pressure has forced it to make the tiny steps it has so far taken. I am however disgusted that after the rhetoric from Miliband - let's just remind ourselves...

Locally engaged Iraqi staff working for our armed forces and civilian missions in Iraq have made an invaluable contribution, in uniquely difficult circumstances, to the UK’s efforts to support security, stability and development in the new Iraq. We are hugely grateful to them for their contribution, which continues to be essential to the delivery of our mission in Iraq.

... and Gordon Brown's talk of the Government's "duty of care", that the same Government would stoop so low as to throw up obstacles to the few Iraqi employees who are entitled to asylum in the UK under Miliband's inadequate scheme. In short it's a bloody disgrace that not only shows the Government in a bad light, it reflects badly on the country too.

It was pressure from the campaign spearheaded by Dan Hardie and helped by the Times that forced the Government to do the barest minimum with what looks like great reluctance. Now we need to apply more pressure to persuade the Government to go all the way and do the decent thing for once without ineffective half-measures.

Please write a polite letter to your MP about this. Dan has more details on how best to do this and gives helpful talking points. You can also use the very handy WriteToThem.com service to find and contact your MP. Lib Dem MP Lynne Featherstone has retabled her Early Day Motion (EDM 401) which calls on the British Government to move further and faster on this issue. If you get a reply from your MP, be sure to send it to Dan Hardie at danhardie.blog@gmail.com so we can find out which MPs are supportive and which ones aren't. Please also take a moment to sign the petition which asks the Government to honour its pledge.

*UPDATE*

More bloggage from Dan Hardie, Bloggerheads, Mr Eugenides, Beau Bo D'Or...

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

Letting The Iraqi Employees Die

2007-11-29T04:35:00.000Z

Since the woefully inadequate non-solution to the problem of granting asylum in the UK to Iraqi employees of the British armed forces and diplomatic services proposed by David Miliband (explained here), things have seemed pretty quiet on the issue. However, the problem has not gone away as the Government has no doubt hoped it would. Dan Hardie has continued to work tirelessly to get a fair deal for these people who have risked their lives and those of their families to help improve things in their country. Whatever our views on the invasion and occupation of Iraq may be (and I've always been completely against it) we have a clear duty to protect those who have helped us, to abandon them is dishonourable and an unacceptable betrayal which will undoubtedly affect future missions where we rely on the local population to help.

The situation for the Iraqi employees has become so desperate that some of these people are contacting Dan directly begging him for help. Dan has been told by some Labour MPs that David Miliband doesn't regard the matter as urgent. Miliband is dead wrong on this, the situation is very urgent indeed, so once again it is up to us to help him to realise this. I'll let Dan explain (I'm reproducing his post in full):

Letting them die
I've had emails from three people who claim to be - and who almost certainly are- Iraqi former employees of the British Government. All three say that they and their former colleagues are still at risk of death for their 'collaboration'.
We'll call the first man Employee One. He worked for the British for three years: 'I started in the beginning of the war with Commandos (in 30 of March 2003) then continued with 23 Pioneer Regt, and in 08 / 07 / 2003 I have joined the Labour Support Unit (LSU)'. His British friends knew him as Chris. The British Government has announced that he can apply for help if he can transport himself to the British base outside Basra, or to the Embassies in Syria or Jordan. It doesn't seem to occur to anyone that there might be problems with this. I can email and telephone this man: so can any Foreign Office official. It should not be impossible to verify his story and then send him the funds he needs to get to a less unsafe Arab country. But that is not happening.
Here's an email exchange we had the other day. My questions are in italics.
Are you still in Iraq?

'Yes, I'm still hidden in somewhere in the hell of Basra.'
Is there any reason you cannot travel to the British Army base at Basra Airbase to ask for asylum?
'Of course, we cannot travel to BIA (Basra International Airbase) due to the militia keep watched all the ways to BIA and they got their own fake check points there although, we claimed for asylum through the internet (we sent our application to the claim office at BIA). But we afraid that the British are going to take a long time to process our claims also we are very worried if they will offer just some money instead of asylum, please sir inform all the British people that we looking for asylum and just the asylum will save our lives, also we can't travel to Syria anymore to claim for asylum there as the Syrian government issued new conditions for Iraqis who want to travel to their country.'
Can you tell me how and when the militias threatened you?
'In 2006 I have threatened by militia that hated me because I work and help coalition forces in Iraq, I told my bosses about that but they said we can't do anything for you because we have nothing to do with civilian and we don't have any army rules or orders to help you, then I continued my daily work with British army, few days later the militia attacked my house trying to catch me but I was at the work at that time, they beaten my family and told them: we want your son or we will kill all of you!!!!
'Since that day I decided to leave my job and change my home place but until this moment the militia trying to find and kill me, I'm always changing my place trying to hidden from them, they know that I left my job but they don't care, they just want to kill me they called me collaborator and traitor and they asked everybody know me about my place, they told them: anyone know anything about (name) he should tell us immediately and also they said: we will never give up until we catch (name). They work for ministry of interior so they controlled most of government departments and they work under that cover.'
Do you have any family members who are also threatened by militias or who depend on you? If so, how many of them are there and how old are they?
'Of course, my family depends on me especially in the finance side as I'm the older son between seven sons and daughters they got, on other hand my parents cannot working as they are very old.'
Employee Two is in Syria, and is applying for aid from the British Embassy in Damascus. He can prove that he has worked for the British for over 12 months, after the magic date of 1st January 2005. But he still isn't safe.
He is staying illegally in Syria, having considerably over-run the 15-day visa on which he entered the country. He's been obliged to get forms for asylum or resettlement aid from the Syrian Government security men who guard the British Embassy. He tells me 'If I see any Syrian officer i really get fear , because of my expired visa.' The British Government, which asked us to accept that it was invading Iraq in part because of its horror at the brutality of the Ba'athist dictatorship, is now perfectly happy to leave its own former employees to the mercies of Syrian Ba'athists.
Colleagues of this man are also hiding in Damascus and are even worse off than he is, because they don't meet the perverse and arbitrary time stipulations. He writes: 'I know 4 former interpreters worked less than a year (for the British: DH), but they went to the embassy and they filled the paper with out telling the guards we had worked for less than a year. The Syrian guards have got instructions from the embassy (British Embassy in Damascus: DH), that (they) do not give that form to any interpreter who worked for British less than a year or any former interpreter who worked in 2003 and fled to Syria before 2005.'
Employee Three sent me copies of his Army ID card and photos of him with smiling Scottish soldiers. He worked for the Army in 2003, who then recommended that he work for Erinys- a private security firm which the British Government hired to form an Oil Protection Force. Both when working for the Army and when working for the British Government's proxies, he was identified as a target by the militias. The British Government made him a death squad target.
That same British Government will not be giving him any kind of assistance; not even a small cash handout to help him live elsewhere in the Middle East. It has announced that it will not help any Iraqi whose direct employment ended before the 1st January 2005: that Johnson Beharry was awarded the Victoria Cross for acts of courage in May and June 2004, when the Mahdi Army attacked the British and were fought off with many hundreds of casualties.
You've heard this before, but it's now more important than ever. The last lot of letters and emails got the Government to announce a change in policy: an inadequate change,badly implemented. The next lot of letters and emails will force the Government to announce another change in policy, one that will be properly implemented and will not be based on leaving people to die.
Your MP's address is The House of Commons, Westminster, London, SW1A 0AA.
His or her email address is probably SURNAMEINITIAL@parliament.uk
(e.g. BROWNG@parliament.uk). Please use the talking points below to send an email and a print letter to your MP, and chase them for an answer. And be courteous: an insulted MP will not raise this matter with Ministers, and that will lead to more avoidable deaths. When you get an answer, email me at danhardie.blog@gmail.com and let me know what they said.
I agree that it seems egocentric for me to ask you to put your MP in touch with me: but what alternatives do we have? I am in direct contact with Iraqi employees pleading with me to do something to help them. I cannot help them. Members of Parliament- including David Miliband- need to read what these Iraqis are saying.
Talking points:
On October 9th David Miliband announced that the British Government would assist former employees in Iraq, so long as they had worked for it after 1st January 2005 and for 12 months or more. That abandons several hundred Iraqis who have been targeted for murder because they worked for the British before that date- and in 2004 fighting between the Mahdi Army and the British was at its peak- or because they worked for less than that period, often leaving their jobs at the end of a British battalion's six-month tour. The British Government must help Iraqi employees on the basis of the risk they face, not according to an arbitrary time stipulation. This only affects a few hundred Iraqis, whom we are well able to shelter, and for whom we have a direct moral responsibility.

Even those Iraqi employees who qualify for assistance are not being properly assisted. Iraqis in Basra are not able to apply via the British Army in Basra International Airbase, since it is ringed with militia checkpoints. Iraqi ex-employees in Damascus are being screened by Syrian policemen guarding the British Embassy and delayed by lengthy bureaucratic procedures when they apply for asylum, although many of them are illegally overstaying their Syrian visas and face deportation back to Iraq.
A blogger called Dan Hardie is directly in touch with a number of Iraqi employees via email and phone. He is willing to brief MPs- as concisely as possible- either over the phone or via email. He can be reached at danhardie.blog@gmail.com
Footnote re authenticity: The ISPs confirm that one email was definitely sent from Damascus, the others from satellite networks serving the Middle East including Iraq. I have spoken to two of them on the phone, using Iraqi telephone numbers. (Many thanks to Alex Harrowell and Surreptitious Evil for their work on this.) A Times journalist in the region tells me that 'Employee Two' and 'Employee Three' are certainly authentic: she has been in contact with them herself. The other has sent me scanned copies of his British Army IDs, and photographs of him with smiling soldiers, as well as a lengthy reference from Erinys. He either is who he says he is, or has stolen the documents of the man he is claiming to be: and given that he names soldiers who know him, and will have to turn up in person and be photographed to claim asylum at a British Embassy, he would have no chance of perpetrating a successful fraud.
Footnote re the wider refugee crisis: Conceivably the Sunni-Shi'ite violence in the American-occupied areas of Iraq is diminishing: this story, quoting Iraqi Government sources, argues that it is, though the Iraqi Government has a vested interest in claiming an improvement. In response, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees argues that there has been no improvement. But even if the UNHCR is wrong, the Iraqi Government is right and things have got better for refugees from Baghdad and neighbouring areas that is, sadly, irrelevant to Britain's employees in the South of the country. What's still the case is that Basra is now effectively under the control of various Shi'ite groups who have varying amounts of loathing for the British and their Iraqi employees, and that one of the most powerful is the Mahdi Army, who fought several outright battles against British troops and have a long track record of killing 'Locally Employed Civilians'.

I wrote to my MP over this affair during the summer and received a prompt reply with the promise of a response from David Miliband when it came. It never came. I will be writing again to my MP shortly using the information contained here. I urge any British citizen reading this to do the same. When things get so bad that those in desperate need feel they have to contact powerless bloggers instead of the relevant branches of Government begging for help, then the Government needs to be forced into taking effective action.

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

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

Death Squads Target Families of Iraqi Employees

2007-08-21T07:20:00.000+01:00

Sectarian death squads are kidnapping, torturing and murdering the relatives of Iraqi employees of the British armed forces. In order to get to an interpreter called Abu Abdullah, a militia kidnapped his unemployed brother, Mohammed and beat him with a metal pipes, wooden sticks and a cable as well as burning him with cigarettes.

His kidnappers said that they wanted to kill anyone who had worked for the British military. “They told me that people with such jobs are spies,” said Mohammed, who gained Dutch citizenship after leaving Iraq in 1994 but who returned after the 2003 invasion to get married and start a family.
Fortunately for him he managed to satisfy the gang that he was not an interpreter and was released after four days when his family paid a $20,000 (£10,000) ransom.

This shows that Britain needs to offer asylum not just to Iraqi employees of the military but also to their immediate families. While they are working for the army, interpreters can seek temporary sanctuary at British bases as Abu Abdullah did, but the families are left vulnerable. And when they finish working for the army, they are simply abandoned.

Despite receiving a glowing reference form his military superiors Abu Abdullah felt that he had nowhere to turn. Desperate, the 50-year-old wrote an e-mail to The Times. It was headed: “Subject: Critical situation (a matter of life and death)”.
The experiences of the two men underline the dangers for Iraqis of having even an indirect relationship with the British in Basra. Gordon Brown is reviewing the Government’s refusal to help interpreters to start a new life in Britain after their plight was highlighted by The Times. The Home Office is looking at ways of extending help without offering them asylum.
Abu Abdullah listed several threats in his e-mail. “On July 15, 2007, at 8pm, four men driving a Toyota car came nearby shop [sic] to my house and start talking in a loud voice with a clear intention for the shopkeeper to hear (sort of indirect threat to me).
“The shopkeeper informed my wife of the incident. [The men said]: ‘We know [Abu Abdullah] well . . . sooner or later we will find him, or we will kidnap one of his family members to help us find him’.” One man added: “It will be easier for us to just kidnap his wife or one of his daughters’.”

There is no way that these people can be kept safe without an offer of asylum despite what the Home Office might tell us. As long as they are in Iraq (or even in neighbouring countries), they are in danger.

Increasingly worried for his family, he approached the British Forces for help but they said that they were unable to do anything. “I feel like a prisoner, but what can I do? This is my fate. If I go anywhere outside the base it will be a very high risk for me.”
Abu Abdullah is trying to obtain a masters degree from Basra University, which could enable him to get a job overseas. Failing that, he is hoping for a change of heart in Britain over its policy for Iraqi interpreters. “I wish that the British Government takes the Iraqi interpreters and their families with them, I am keeping my ears to the ground in case there is any news,” said Abu Abdullah, who – unlike many of his colleagues – has no regrets about his job despite all the problems.

Read the whole article and then:

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

We Can't Turn Them Away - Blog Banners

2007-08-17T18:08:00.000+01:00

Unity from Ministry of Truth has created some excellent blog banners for those who support the campaign to grant asylum to Iraqi employees of the UK armed forces. There is a choice of banners with different wording in both vertical format (for blog sidebars) and horizontal for individual blog posts. Why not pop over there now and get one for your blog?

How you can help:

The campaign is gaining momentum now and more stories are appearing in the media. It is a matter of urgency to get a solution to this issue. As our government contemplates what to do, these people are DYING NOW.

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

We Can't Turn Them Away - BBC Podcast

2007-08-14T15:58:00.000+01:00

The campaign to offer asylum in Britain for Iraqi employees of the British armed forces has been featured on the BBC Radio Five Live 'Pods and Blogs' feature. About half way through the podcast, Chris Vallance interviews an Iraqi interpreter currently seeking asylum in the USA. There is also an interview with Dan Hardie who launched the British blog campaign. Unity from Ministry of Truth is kindly hosting the relevant section of the podcast which you can listen to on the Audio thingy below.

If you want to listen to the whole podcast (which also features Tim Worstall providing highlights from his Britblog Roundup), you can download or play it from the 'Pods and Blogs' link above or from here.

If you haven't already, please write to your MP (Dan Hardie has some useful tips). Also please sign the petition.

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

Iraqi Interpreters - Update

2007-08-10T14:51:00.000+01:00

This video by Tim Ireland explains the issue of the Iraqi employees hired by the British military and abandoned by the British government simply and effectively. Watch it and pass it on.

There is also a handy blog button which you can get from here or by clicking on it.

The campaign to get some justice for these people is gaining momentum. The media is now all over the story and the government has been forced to make conciliatory gestures. However, mere gestures are not good enough, especially when we are told:

No 10 said the issue would be kept under review, but previous decisions were unlikely to be overturned.

These emloyees are being tortured and murdered NOW!! So it's no good our government telling us:

"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."

Because, as Justin says:

‘In the autumn‘? ‘Appropriate pace’? This isn’t good enough. These people are dying right now. And not by a nice swift, lights-out bullet to the back of the head. They’re being power drilled in the hands and legs and head so their mutilated bodies can serve as warning to others. Those 91 interpreters could be dead ‘in the autumn’.

And we would have been unlikely to have gotten even that paltry gesture if it hadn't been for the campaign launched by bloggers of all political persuasions to bring this matter to the attention of their representatives in Parliament. MPs have been getting letters from their constituents over this issue and most are being passed on to either the Foreign Secretary, the Home Secretary of the Defence Secretary. It is having an effect but we need more people to lobby their their MPs. If you haven't already, please write to your MP and also take a moment to sign the petition and, if you can, pass it on to others.

Cartoon by Morland

Justin is keeping a tally of the responses from MPs so we can see which ones are being helpful and which ones are dragging their feet. If you have a blog and have received a reply from your MP do leave a comment and post the response on your blog if you have one. The Facebook group is growing steadily so feel free to join and invite others to.

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

We Can't Turn Them Away - Update

2007-08-06T15:53:00.000+01:00

I meant to post this a week ago but didn't get around to it (thanks to Tim and Dan for the reminder). The following is the reply I received from my MP David Lammy after I wrote to him about the plight of Iraqi citizens who work for the British armed forces as translators and in other capacities. You can read my original post on this matter along with the letter I wrote to my MP here. David Lammy replied to my letter within a couple of days which I thought was quite impressive. Anyway here is what he wrote to me:

24 July 2007
Dear Mr Simonetti
Thank you for your letter of 24th July regarding Iraqi citizens. I have taken this matter up with David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, and await his response, a copy of which I shall forward to you for your information.
In the meantime, please feel free to contact my office with any further issues you may wish to raise.
Yours sincerely
David Lammy
Member of Parliament for Tottenham

I expect I'll have to wait a while for David Miliband's response but please do write to your MP (politely), it's easy to do using Write To Them .com. And please also take a moment to sign the petition if you haven't already. For those who use Facebook, there is a group dedicated to the campaign to Offer Asylum to Iraqis Working for the British Armed Forces which has the latest developments on this issue.

*UPDATE*

Justin is keeping a tally of replies from MPs so we can see at a glance which ones are responding positively to the campaign. If you have received a reply from your MP, why not pop over and leave a comment?

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

We Can't Turn Them Away

2007-07-24T06:34:00.000+01:00

We've seen many times throughout history that collaborators with an occupying power are never popular with their own people. When the occupiers finally leave, collaborators are often in danger. Iraq will be no different when the current occupation ends - as it inevitably will. Now, one can argue that collaborators deserve what they get but is that really the case? In Iraq, working for the occupation forces is often the only available employment as the infrastructure of the country has been utterly destroyed. The people who work for the various remaining coalition armies as translators etc. aren't responsible for the invasion and subsequent catastrophe in Iraq, and their families even less so. And yet, as the coalition shrinks, these people will be abandoned by the 'liberators' and their lives and those of their families will be in serious danger as various factions strive for power and seek revenge. This is happening already as death squads hunt down translators for coalition partners.

It seems only right that the countries that invaded Iraq should look after the people who helped them. But it is by no means certain that this will happen. It is possible that Britain, if it does anything at all, will decide to dump some of them in Syria or Jordan which are both overburdened with refugees from Iraq. Denmark recently led the way by airlifting 200 translators and other Iraqis working for them along with their relatives and is excpected to offer them asylum in Denmark. Britain should do the same and in order to try and help ensure that Britain does do the right thing for once, I'm joining the growing campaign, started at Dan Hardie's blog, to ask the Government to follow Denmark's example. The campaign is called "We Can't Turn Them Away". All we need to do is spread the word by blogging on this topic or by writing to newspapers and also writing to our MPs asking them what they intend to do about this problem. If enough pressure can be exerted on our politicians then perhaps we can get them to do the right thing for once. This campaign already has the support of the following bloggers:

I'll add more links as I find them. I have created a petition on the Downing Street website which has now been approved. Please sign it and link to it if you can. Oh, and there is now a Facebook group you can join.

*UPDATE*

My Letter to my MP (using Write To Them.com)

Dear David Lammy,

I am writing to ask you if you could help press the Government about the treatment of Iraqi citizens who have worked for the UK Armed Forces, the Coalition Provisional Authority, and contractors working for both organisations in the South of Iraq. As our presence in Iraq is reduced, these workers are in increasing danger from numerous death squads which are hunting them down. I believe that these people deserve the right to indefinite asylum in the United Kingdom and I was wondering if you felt the same. These Iraqis have put their lives at risk by supporting our armed forces who were sent to war by a vote in Parliament.

Whatever our positions on the decision to go to war was, those Iraqis who worked for the coalition deserve our support as do the British soldiers themselves. These employees suffer a greater degree of risk than the armed forces as they have to live among their fellow Iraqis who, in some cases, may be sympathetic or even belong to militias opposing the British presence. We have a moral duty to ensure as best we can the well-being of these employees and I believe it would be dishonourable to abandon them to the very real risk of being murdered for the ‘crime’ of helping our service men and women.

Offering these brave people and their families (who are also at grave risk from various armed groups) the right to remain in the UK indefinitely would be the most effective way to ensure their safety. Because the situation in Basra is deteriorating, the normal, lengthly process for applying for asylum is, I believe, inappropriate. British soldiers will find it increasingly difficult to protect these people who risk being murdered for their co-operation with our military - indeed, it's already happening. Iraqis who worked for British forces should not be told to leave Iraq and throw themselves on the mercy of United Nations relief agencies in Arab countries: these agencies are already being overwhelmed by the outflow of Iraqi refugees, and Iraqi refugees who have worked for British diplomats or troops may well be targeted by local jihadists. Britain would be shamed if any more Iraqis were murdered for the ‘crime’ of having supported UK forces. Whether the bulk of our forces are to be withdrawn soon or whether they are to stay longer, the danger for Iraqi citizens employed by the military remains serious. I think it would be morally unacceptable for Britain to abandon people who are at risk because they worked for British soldiers and diplomats.

The Danish army recently airlifted 200 Iraqi translators and other workers employed by them out of Iraq and it is being reported that they and their relatives are to be offered asylum in Denmark. I believe we should follow this example.

I would appreciate your views on this matter and any help you can give to raise this issue with the Government. Thank you for your time.

Yours sincerely,

Davide Simonetti

I'll let you know what response I get when it comes.

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