The Home Office Have Been In Touch

David Lepper, MP has passed on a letter from Meg Hillier, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Home Office. The jist of it is as follows:

• Thank you for your letter to the Home Secretary on behalf of Planet Zinfandel, I have been asked to reply.
• The UK is signed up to the 1951 Refugee convention and ECHR. Any Iraqi who qualifies is in.
• The refugee convention defines a refugee as someone out of their country of origin. Iraqis in Iraq, therefore, don't count. There is no scope within the Immigration Rules for considering asylum applications made from abroad.
  
• HMG is very grateful for the service of locally employed staff in Iraq and takes their security seriously. The matter is under review. (At this point I should cough to using the 'I' word in my letter before everyone decided against it. Happily Ms. Hillier notes that at least 15,000 Iraqi employees could have a claim to assistance. Well done those of you who used the 'E' word.)
• The Home Office, MOD and FCO are looking into the matter and I don't want to pre-empt their recommendations. Hopefully this will reassure you we are taking the matter seriously.

So no real surprises. But better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.