OPINION: Asylum trek well worn by local feet

ANYONE who reads the papers knows the truth about asylum-seekers and refugees.

Northern Ireland is being swamped by floods of asylum-seekers. Most - if not all - of them are bogus. They come here not because of any danger at home, but in order to scrounge off our generous benefits system.

And, of course, they cost the taxpayer a fortune, taking money that should be spent on our hospitals and schools.

That, at least, is the impression you might get from the coverage in some of the media.

In fact, these familiar views bear little resemblance to the truth about refugees and asylum-seekers. So lets put the record straight - it's time for a reality check.

There are millions of refugees throughout the world, but only a tiny proportion come to Europe, let alone the UK and never mind Northern Ireland.

In fact, only about 400 people apply for asylum in Northern Ireland every year. So, far from being flooded, the flow of refugees here is barely a trickle.

They join the small but vibrant ethnic minority communities that have made their homes here and have contributed so much over the years.

People have sought asylum in this part of the world for centuries because, despite all our troubles, this is a relatively safe place.

In the 1600s, Protestants fled persecution in France and helped create our linen industry and towns such as Lisburn.

In the 1940s, Jewish refugees fled the Nazi Holocaust and in the 1970s Vietnamese 'boat people' sought refuge from the war scarring their homeland.

These days, Amnesty International knows of refugees in Northern Ireland who have fled the wars and persecutions of our era; trade unionists who have escaped death squads in Central America, students who got out of China after the Tiananmen Square massacre and businessmen escaping the war in Kosovo.

All have needed a new home and Northern Ireland has been able to give the chance of a new life.

We should all be tremendously proud of this.

But we dare not be proud of all aspects of the reception that we give asylum-seekers. For, far from being a 'soft touch', for asylum- seekers, Northern Ireland can offer terrible hardship to people who are already destitute.

Asylum-seekers receive benefits at only 70 per cent of the level of Income Support that you or I could expect.

They are not allowed to work. They face the humiliation of having to use vouchers instead of cash, can only use the vouchers in certain shops and then don't even receive any change.

WORSE still, some asylum-seekers, perhaps having fled torture in their own countries, find themselves locked up in Maghaberry Prison for months on end despite never having committed a crime.

Many have been jailed simply because they have strayed over the border without even realising that the border exists.

To treat so badly people who have been through so much to get here is nothing short of a shameful disgrace. But, of course, we allow asylum-seekers to be treated so badly because we have allowed them to be demonised by some politicians and papers.

We have forgotten that asylum-seekers and refugees are ordinary people like you or me who have had to face extraordinary circumstances.

Nobody wants to leave their homes and their homelands for an uncertain future in an unfamiliar land. But that's what refugees have had to do.

And let's not forget that, during the Troubles, many thousands of ordinary young people and families left Northern Ireland to seek a more peaceful life elsewhere.

Everyone of us has best friends or family who left here for that very reason. So, next time you see the "shock, horror" headlines, remember - we can be refugees, too.

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