More info about the media's skewed and biased reporting of asylum seekers can be found in this old Media Lens article:
http://www.medialens.org/alerts/03/0...mmigration.HTM
which includes such choice quotable copy as:
"Is appropriate coverage given, for example, to the fact that in 2001 the UK had only 169,370 officially recognized refugees living within its borders compared to Germany's 988,500, Iran's 1.9 million or Pakistan's 2.2 million? Are we made sufficiently aware that during the same year the UK received 71,365 applicants for asylum, granting this status to just 11,180 individuals - 0.02% of the UK population? Or that Pakistan received a single influx of 199,900 Afghan refugees? Or that the ten largest refugee movements in 2001 were, with the exception of Yugoslavia, all made between countries in the Third World? "
and:
"What do the media have to say about the fact that the UK has recently sold arms to all five countries of origin topping the UK list of asylum applicants in 2001? This, despite the fact that, in each case, violent military conflict remains the dominant root cause of refugee flight. More generally, what emphasis is placed on adverse conditions in countries of origin - poverty, human rights abuses, global income disparity, conflict and torture - in articles concerned with asylum and immigration?*"
Also, some more thoughts on this topic from users of the Media Lens message board:
http://members5.boardhost.com/medial...147350964.html
...which brings us back to the distinction between immigrants and asylum seekers - 2 different things, yet most people can't see the difference. If anybody in this country, regardless of their status commits a crime they should be punishable under the applicable laws. No kicking people out, that's just ridiculous - and unpracticable in law. Once somebody gains British citizenship that's it, they're British. Otherwise half the UK could be deported to France following a run-in with the law due to their Gallic ancestry from the Norman invasions of 1066!!! If they're not a British citizen and they don't have the appropriate visas then there's no way they can legally stay here after spending time in prison and would be deported anyway.