By IRNA,
London : British mercenaries serving in Iraq are finding themselves without a job after being replaced by cheaper soldiers from eastern Europe, according to the National Association of Security Professionals (NASP).
The number of Britons, usually former soldiers, providing security in Iraq, was said to have fallen from a peak of about 5,000 in 2004-05 to nearer 2,000 this year.
NASP Director Mark Shurben-Browne said the market had reached saturation point, with companies receiving 10-20 CVs a day, while many firms were trying to reduce costs by hiring staff from eastern Europe, particularly Serbs and Croats.
“One company sacked half their British workforce and replaced them with cheaper guys with a special forces background from eastern Europe,” Shurben-Browne said.
“The companies are mixing the teams up, keeping two or three expat or British guys on in a team with the rest from eastern Europe,” he was quoted as saying by the Guardian newspaper Monday.
Former British military officers could reportedly earn salaries of hundreds of thousands of pounds a year working as mercenaries and security guards overseas.
But according to Andy Bearpark, director general of the British Association of Private Security Companies, the figure is more likely now to be around just pnds 50,000 (dlrs 75,000).
Bearpark said that he heard of Fijians, Gurkhas, Ukrainians and Sierra Leoneans being employed, usually on much lower wages than UK and US personnel.
“There was a US firm which was not even paying Sierra Leoneans 10 percent of what they paid their US staff,” he said.
“The average guy is earning pnds 40,000-pnds 45,000 in Afghanistan, which is nothing like what people were earning in Iraq,” he also said.