AS co-ordinators of York Refugee Week, we feel it is important to respond to Marion Clarke's attack on the Evening Press' editorial deploring the BNP presence in York (September 29).
It is a deliberate ploy of far-right groups such as the BNP, and the right wing press in general, to make "asylum seekers" synonymous with "illegal immigrants". The fact that David Blunkett hasn't a clue about how many illegal immigrants there are in Britain has no relevance whatever to the number of asylum seekers in York or anywhere else in the country.
According to the Home Office's own figures, total asylum applications in Britain were down by 34 per cent on the previous quarter, and this country still receives one of the lowest percentages of refugees to size of population of any major Western country.
For parties like the BNP and those that share their views, the United Nations Convention on Refugees, to which the United Kingdom is a signatory, should be torn up in the certain knowledge that many asylum applicants will be sent back to detention, torture and even death.
The "problem" is not the number of asylum seekers in York or Britain, but the fact that the world is an increasingly unsafe and dangerous place.
The long-term solution is to build prosperity, democracy and a respect for human rights beyond our shores. In the short-term, however, we have a moral and human obligation to offer shelter to those fleeing war or persecution.
Simon Parker and Esme Madill,
Heslington Croft,
York.
...I'M not clear what Marion Clarke thinks the Evening Press has done wrong. Is it your calm and accurate reporting of the facts on asylum? Would Sun-style hype and predictions of Armageddon make for a better debate?
And I can't believe anyone would object to your rightly taking a strong stance against the bigots of the BNP. Their poisonous creed of racist hate has brought division and violence to the streets of too many towns already.
We don't want their neo-Nazi nonsense here.
Ben Drake,
Danum Road,
Fulford,
York.
Updated: 11:11 Friday, October 03, 2003
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