Liberal and 'racist'
Sir: Charles Moore's article, (`Time for a more liberal and "racist" immigration poli- cy', 19 October) confuses two very different groups of people. Those who seek asylum and those who migrate in search of wealth and opportunity.
Under international law, asylum seekers are those fleeing persecution of one kind or another. The tradition of providing asylum. goes back for millennia. This tradition is now under great strain for a number of rea- sons. One is that asylum procedures lend themselves to abuse by economic migrants. Another is that asylum seekers no longer tend to come from the communist bloc, where their courage had our moral supPort, but from Third World countries whose leaders, as often as not, are supported by the West.
Another reason is that, like Mr Moore, the public fails to distinguish the asylum seeker from the increasing number of eco-
LETTERS
nomic migrants in the world. I don't agree with his recipe for immigration. And I won- der whether his more liberal and 'racist' Policy is meant to be for asylum seekers too,
Michael Keating 29 Portland Road,
London wit
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