Amnesty raps U.K. on asylum

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, MAY 31.In an embarrassing turn to the asylum debate, the Amnesty International has sharply criticised Britain for its policy towards asylum seekers and questioned its human rights record in Northern Ireland.

The Amnesty report comes in the midst of an election campaign dominated by issues relating to asylum with the Tories calling for a tougher policy to keep out ``illegal'' immigrants, and the Labour indicating a quota system for asylum seekers in its second term in office.

The report, published today, pointed out that upto 1,000 asylum seekers were detained in Britain at any given time and there had been an ``alarming shortfall'' in providing legal advice to those seeking refuge.

It also condemned the ``negative'' media coverage saying it tended to pander to ``racial prejudice'' creating a ``hostile environment for many refugees''. The policy of dispersing asylum seekers to areas where people have no experience of living with refugees has also been criticised.

``How can we claim to be a just and tolerant society when we greet those fleeing persecution with such hostility and suspicion,'' said the Amnesty's annual World Report.

Referring to the plight of refugees from Afghanistan, it said: ``It is clear that the journey from Afghanistan to the United Kingdom is one from desperation to despair.''

The world human rights organisation, whose findings are invariably invoked by advanced countries such as Britain to criticise the Third World record on civil liberties, has alleged human rights violations in Northern Ireland. It has pointed out that the new Police Act ``failed to highlight the centrality of human rights protection'' and was short on accountability. The Amnesty report mentions specific cases of alleged human rights violation in Northern Ireland, as also in mainland Britain.

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