By IRNA
London : Britain Tuesday was facing more accusations of abandoning Iraqi interpreters facing persecution for collaborating with UK troops.
According to the Times newspaper, the UK government has ignored appeals from senior army officers in Basra to relax asylum regulations and make special arrangements for Iraqis whose loyal services have put their lives at risk.
Some 91 Iraqi interpreters and their families, facing possible death when British forces withdraw from Iraq, were said to have been abandoned.
One interpreter, who has worked with the Army since 2004 and wanted to start a new life in Britain after British Forces pull out, was told by the Prime Minister’s Office that he would receive no special favours, the daily reported.
Armed with a glowing reference from his commander, Major Pauric Newland, stating that his life would be in danger once British Forces left, A Kinani made a personal appeal to Tony Blair, during his last visit to Iraq as prime minister in May, it said.
But the translator reportedly received a reply saying he was not eligible for asylum and suggested that he went to a third country and advised him to look at a website for help.
“The British make us easy food near the lion’s mouth,” Kinani was quoted saying in an interview with the Times, accusing the UK government of being “cowardly.”
The latest accusations come after reports of three other former Iraqi interpreters, making appeals to the British premier after being denied asylum in April.
Loay Mohammed Al-Tahar, Issa Jafer Al-Saed and Akram Moaiy’d Kalaf, were reported to have received no help from British official in Damascus and had not even been allowed to set foot in the UK embassy to plead their case for asylum.
Britain’s policy is being contrasted with that of Denmark, which has already made special arrangements to help its Iraqi staff and the Americans, who are set to accept 7,000 Iraqi refugees.
Senior politicians and serving officers have appealed to the government to reconsider their refusals, including the Conservative’s shadow foreign secretary William Hague, who said that Britain had benefited from the services of the Iraqis.
“As Britain reduces its military presence in Iraq, we ought to look to the safety of those who have risked their lives to help us,” Hague said.
Labour backbench MP David Winnick has also argued that he hoped the British government would be no less generous than the policy of the Danes.
Britain’s position has been further criticised by human rights groups, including Tom Porteous, the director of Human Rights Watch in the UK, who has called on the government to reverse its policy.