Immigration

It is nothing like as easy to enter the UK as is sometimes portrayed by newspapers wanting to sell copy and certain politicians desperate for votes in a race to see who can appear to be most hard-line.

This is certainly the case with regards to asylum cases.

Asylum-seekers are, of course, not normal immigrants as they are claiming to be fleeing violence or oppression and come here for safety. It is completely legal under the 1951 Convention on Refugees.

David Cameron stated in January 2012 that: “No decent country should deport people if they are going to be tortured”.”

Yet that is exactly what we are doing with regards to asylumseekers who are being sent back to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The report Unsafe Return, which was featured in The Northern Echo, when it was published in November 2011, carefully documents many cases of ill-treatment of asylumseekers returned to the DRC.

One example of many asylumseekers returned to the DRC and ill-treated is Blaise Kamba.

Blaise was deported from the UK in 2009 and was returned to the DRC, imprisoned, ill-treated and hasn’t been heard of for a number of years.

The UK does not monitor asylum-seekers when they are returned to the DRC and yet the Home Office refuse to accept the evidence of reports such as Unsafe Return and nongovernmental organisations in the DRC, who clearly state that returnees are being ill-treated.

It seems a terrible shame that innocent asylum-seekers from the DRC and are merely pawns in a media and political game about being tough on immigration in general and asylum in particular.

They deserve better.

Peter Sagar, Newcastle.