Local MPs challenged to back Iraqis who risked their lives for our forces (Westminster and City of London Liberal Democrats)

Westminster and City of London Liberal Democrats <info@westminsterlibdems.org.uk>

Local MPs challenged to back Iraqis who risked their lives for our forces

August 11, 2007 12:09 AM

Westminster's MPs, Mark Field and Karen Buck, are being challenged by the local Liberal Democrats to support the 91 Iraqi interpreters who have worked for and helped the British in Iraq, but who are now being abandoned to their fate at the hands of the militias.

Local Liberal Democrat Neville Farmer has emailed both MPs asking them to sign an online petition supporting the Iraqis. The petition can be found online at http://campaigns.libdems.org.uk/interpreters

Speaking shortly after sending the emails, Neville said: "The sad fact is that all these people's lives will be at great risk when the British concentrate all their resources at Basra airbase and then, eventually, leave the country altogether.

"There is no doubt in my mind that Britain has a moral responsibility towards them and it would be a betrayal of that duty of care if they were not better looked after and where appropriate given asylum in this country.

He continued: "What I want to see is an immediate inquiry into their situation and that of all the hundreds of other workers who may also have put their own lives and those of their families in danger by working for the British.

"Numerous interpreters have been kidnapped, tortured and killed by Iraqi militiamen who accuse them of collaboration with their country's enemies and there is no doubt that once the troops have been withdrawn there is every chance they will be further victimised.

"Unlike the British, the Danish government did not turn its back on its responsibilities and when it withdraw its contingent from Iraq it flew all sixty of its translators out of the country at the same time.

"There is rightly fury and indignation from soldiers who have served alongside these people in Iraq. One tells of an interpreter whose wife and family had a gun held to their heads by the militia and ordered to leave the country within three days. Yet he was immediately turned down for refugee status.

"That approach is utterly unacceptable and morally unsustainable.

"Their difficulties highlight yet again the lack of foresight exercised by the British and American governments before embarking on the illegal invasion of Iraq. It has destroyed the lives of tens of thousands of people it was supposed to enhance.

Concluding, he said: "Though we will continue to condemn the war, we also recognise as Liberal Democrats that those who have risked their lives in their work for the British government deserve a fair hearing and they deserve it now."

The wording of the petition reads: "We, the undersigned, believe the United Kingdom Government has a moral obligation to provide asylum for those Iraqis whose work for British forces has left them extremely vulnerable to torture and murder."

It is available to sign online at http://campaigns.libdems.org.uk/interpreters