YOU published two letters on Monday about asylum seekers headed: Stop the bogus asylum-seekers and Britain will be flooded - which could be misleading to readers.

Mr Brierley says that the Government has refused to implement the powers of the 1996 Immigration and Asylum Act, but section eight has made it law for all employers to check the immigration status of anyone who is offered a job. In fact they are not allowed to work for their first six months in the UK, and there is evidence that this law is causing real problems for those refugees who have been given leave to stay who wish to work rather than have to rely on benefit.

The amnesty, or "exceptional leave to remain", which he refers to, has been granted to a backlog of 20,000 asylum seekers because the system to hear their cases is in such a mess. It is surely in everyone's interest for the Government to put more resources into getting this system working efficiently, so that all asylum claims can be processed as quickly as possible.

Mr Rushton claims we are being flooded with refugees, but in terms of applications per head of population, the UK ranks ninth in Europe.

He refers to "100,000 people declared illegal who are still here" but these are presumably the 20,000 mentioned above, plus 80,000 who are still waiting for their case to be heard. On current trends only about half of these cases may be recognised as genuine.

There is no "bottomless pit of money for asylum seekers": in fact 30,000 are surviving in hard-to-let accommodation with only £25 vouchers per week to exchange in one designated supermarket.

Of course those who have invented false stories of persecution should have their claims turned down, but watching the news each night you can see plenty of horrendous conflict situations around the world, which any ordinary person would desperately seek to escape from. The vast majority of refugees would far rather stay with their family and friends, than uproot themselves from their language and culture, leave their houses and possessions behind, and travel thousands of miles to an unfamiliar country.

Mr Brierley does recognise that "our country has a proud tradition of accepting asylum seekers", and Mr Rushton, that "this country has always been kind and understanding to people in distress".

May this long remain so. For many of these refugees have gone on to make great contributions to the business and cultural life of our country.

I McHugh

Gilnow Road, Bolton

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.