[Media-watch] Fwd: Action request from Amnesty - articles to respond to

[David Miller]

Subject: Action request - articles to respond to
From: Sonya.Fairhurst at amnesty.org.uk
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2004 12:09:37 +0000


Dear all, 

Both the Scotsman and the Daily Mail have run a story taken from PA News
about the large number of asylum seekers  the UK receives. Please write to
them and challenge these stories. You might like to use some of the
following facts: 

- The UK was not  the " Top Asylum-Seeker Destination in 2002" as headlines
in both the Scotsman and the Daily Mail claim.

- This conveniently ignores that most refugees cross a border to a
neighbouring country.  The world's poorest countries bear responsibility for
most refugees. 

- According to UNHCR stats,! 72% of the world's 12 million refugees are
given asylum by developing countries whilst Britain is though to host less
than 2%. 

- It is headlines like this which create myths about the country being
'swamped' by asylum seekers. A Mori Poll in 2002 found that the public over
estimate by a factor of 10 the number of asylum seekers and refugees in the
country, believing that the UK hosts about 23% of the world's refugees. The
real figure is less than 2%

- As both the newspapers acknowledge in the final line of their articles,
when the size of each country's population is taken into account Britain is
actually eighth in Europe, receiving 1.9 asylum applications for every 1,000
inhabitants, compared to Austria's 4.6, Norway's 3.9, Sweden's 3.7,
Switzerland's 3.7 and Ireland's 3.1.

- It is important that we see refugees as vulnerable people fleeing
persecution. The real is! sue is not whether we can "get the numbers down"
but whether we can offer protection to the world's tortured and persecuted.

The links to the articles:

The Scotsman: 
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2437254

The Mail: 
http://www.femail.co.uk/pages/standard/article.html?in_article_id=206468&in_
page_id=2 
(This link comes from "femail - one of their online editions but a similar
story appears in the main paper.

Contact details: 
(remember to mark your letter 'for publication').
If you do write a letter please let us know.
Daily Mail 
letters at dailymail.co.uk
Daily Mail Letters, Caledonian Newspapers, 200 Renfield Street, Glasgow G2
3PZ 
Fax: 0207 937 7493


or the email for their online 'Femail' site from which the link comes is:
feedback at femail.co.uk

The Scotsman 
letters_ts at scotsman.com
Scotsman Editor, 108 Holyrood Road, Edinburgh EH8 8AS

All the best, 
Michelle 


Michelle Lowe 
Scottish Campaigner
Amnesty International
6 Castle Street 
Edinburgh EH2 3AT 
0131 466 6200 (t)  0131 466 6201 (f)

I work part-time and my normal office hours are Monday afternoons,
Wednesdays and Thursdays.





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