Email your MP calling on them to oppose hysteria against asylum seekers and immigrants.
Use the link here to 'fax your MP.com' to send a message directly to your elected
representative. Just fill in your postcode and click 'GO'. You can use
some of the information below to make your case in your letter.
• A positive case on immigration can and should be made. For example
in London, the most economically dynamic part of the country, 29 out of 100
people in the population were not born in the UK, and these make up 35 per
cent of London’s working age population, adding to London’s economic
growth.
• Misconceptions — such as that Britain is being ‘flooded’
— need to be refuted not added to by politicians. On refugee numbers,
the EU has provided protection to around only 20 per cent of the world’s
refugees. Of those, Britain ranks ninth in the EU for the number of asylum
applications per 1,000 inhabitants. And while UNHCR figures on refugees and
other groups ‘of concern’ show between 16 and 17 million people
in 2004, the number of people seeking asylum in industrialised countries fell
by 22 per cent in the first three quarters of 2004 to 271,700.
• A policy which highlights the positive benefits of immigration and
asylum and challenges ignorance will help social cohesion.