The Government has accepted privately that interpreters who face persecution and death for helping British troops in Iraq must be given sanctuary in Britain.Posted on 25 August 2007 @ 13:38 GMTIts change of heart follows two weeks in which The Times has highlighted the plight of the interpreters, and expressions of outrage from military leaders, politicians and diplomats at their abandonment.
"There's an emerging consensus [across Whitehall] that there's an issue here that has to be dealt with, and it's difficult to see how a blanket refusal could be a tenable position," a senior official disclosed yesterday.
Ministers will not take a formal decision until early autumn "but I would be very surprised if that decision is entirely negative . . . There's a general acceptance that we need to do something and should do something."