Caledoniyya

Throughout the course of the recent Iraq war, Coalition forces have been assisted by Iraqi translators who have placed their lives on the line in a manner equal to that of the military forces, as their families and friends are drawn into danger by mere association to the perceived ‘traitors’.

Constituting 40% of the 300-plus fatalities filed by private contractors with the U.S. Labor Department - a figure that fails to touch upon the vast number employed by the remaining Coalition forces - translators are seen as the link between U.S. troops and the Iraqi people, presenting a dangerous line to tread.

Yet despite the threats that arrived thick and fast, Iraqi translators have remained stoic regarding their chosen profession. As one translator recently noted: “If the insurgents catch us, they will cut off our heads because the imams say we are spies. I’ve been threatened like fifteen times, but I won’t quit. A neighbor saw me driving and said, ‘I am going to kill you.” When, in October 2005,  a video revealing the beheading of Luqman Mohammed Kurdi Hussein, a Titan linguist and Iraqi Kurd was released by insurgents, the threats became a devastating reality.

For certain Coalition employees, there is a reward for their derring-do: last month Denmark covertly airlifted out of Iraq around 200 translators and other Iraqi employees of its troops, with the majority - alongside their relatives numbering approximately 7,000 - to seek asylum in the Nordic state. According to the Danish Ambassador to Iraq, Bo Eric Weber, the decision was reached following the death of an Iraqi employee in December: “They had been working for us for about four years, and those who felt their security in Iraq was threatened have been granted visas to go to Denmark.”

Such concern is scant in the leading Coalition partners, however, as the British government was unveiled today as having ignored the pleas of senior British troops based in Basra to grant asylum to the translators who have to date, risked their lives for the British forces.

Some 91 Iraqi interpreters and their families face possible death once British forces withdraw from Iraq, and their calls for assistance continue to fall upon deaf ears. The most recent - and astoundingly apathetic - case was revealed in an interview with A. Kinani, a translator employed by the Army since 2004, in the British daily, The Times.

Wishing to start a new life in Britain once the army had withdrawn, his application met with a stern response from the Prime Minister’s Office: Kinani would be offered no special favours - he was not eligible for asylum and should seek refuge in a third country, with further information to be found on the official government website.

The account echoes that of three further applicants: Loay Mohammed Al-Tahar, Issa Jafer Al-Saed and Akram Moaiy’d Kalaf, received no help from British officials in Damascus and were refused even to set foot in the UK embassy to plead their case for asylum.

The story is the mirrored across the Atlantic, with Iraqi translators enduring bombings of their home and the murder of their family - all of which receive little or no attention from employers who were once so swift to utilise their services.

To date, the war has cast a deathly pall over Coalition countries - surely, should the governments involved wish to salvage but a soupçon of humanity from their misguided antics, the example of Denmark should be followed? It can only be hoped that as the remaining countries phase out of Iraq, they will not ape the actions of the U.S. and Britain, and extend the hand of gratitude and respect towards those applying for a new life in their societies.