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Sexual harassment claim at UK embassy In IRAQ

by Open-Publishing - Friday 9 May 2008

Justice UK

By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent

British officials were today accused of turning a blind eye to an Iraqi woman’s complaints that she suffered sexual harassment while working in the UK Embassy in Baghdad.
The unnamed woman was allegedly sacked last year after she refused to perform sexual favours for an employee of a private contractor that ran the embassy canteen.

“I suffered this aggression under the British flag,” she said. “I felt like I had been destroyed.”

A British contractor working for the American firm, KBR, is said to have groped employees and cut the pay of those, like the woman making the allegations, who refused to enter a sexual relationship.

The woman alleged that the manager had offered her money for sex.

“(He) threw many $100 notes on the desk and said, ’take whatever you want and stay overnight and I will pay you double’.”

However in London the Foreign Office has declined requests to launch a formal investigation of the matter.

The woman’s predicament was brought to the attention of the former UK ambassador Dominic Asquith last year but he referred the case to KBR’s disciplinary procedures.

Before that decision was taken, Matthew Lodge, then deputy head of mission, interviewed employees about the claims.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We’ve discussed [the investigation] with KBR in detail and are satisfied.”

Two men that backed the woman’s version of events were also sacked, it has been claimed. One of the men said other employees witnessed the harassment but refused to come forward because of a culture of fear inside the Embassy.

KBR has reportedly said there is no basis to the allegations.

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/193...