Not again, surely?

By Ray Fleming IT is hard to believe that the disgraceful delays some years ago in offering asylum in Britain to Iraqis who had served as interpreters for the British Army is being repeated in Afghanistan where uncertainty hangs over some six hundred interpreters who have worked with British forces, journalists and aid workers and now fear they will be left behind at the mercy of the Taliban when the British presence ends next year. Several of them and their families have already been threatened by the Taliban. The position is not altogether clear but it is worrying enough to have led General Sir Mike Jackson, Lord Paddy Ashdown and others to protest about it in a letter to The Times last Saturday. It seems that the Foreign Office has the responsibility for this matter but is treating applications for asylum on a slow case-by-case basis instead of using the group approach which was eventually applied in Iraq. Obviously, this is not a simple matter because of questions of families and dependants arise but the basic fact is that without the interpreters the tasks undertaken by Britain in Afghanistan would have been impossible or extremely difficult. They should therefore be treated as generously as possible. Apparently, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States have already guaranteed asylum for interpreters who apply for asylum. Why is Britain dragging its feet?