I’M surprised that John Young thinks I have provided a robust defence of the UK’s immigration policy (HAS, May 17).

I think the UK’s policy is chaotic, irrational and inhumane.

In his letter (HAS, May 7) about a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Peter Sagar eloquently exposes the inhumanity of Britain’s “target-driven” policy on asylum-seekers, who make up a very small minority of immigrants.

Millions of people have died in the ongoing conflict in the DRC and hundreds of thousands of women and children have been raped. Half a million have fled, mainly to refugee camps in neighbouring countries. Only 200 have sought refuge in the UK.

Mr Young also says I have insisted that “this EU-imposed free-for-all is to our advantage”.

I dispute the suggestion that there is any “free-for-all”, but I see little advantage in remaining in the EU unless it can be comprehensively reformed. At present, it is an undemocratic and cumbersome bureaucracy.

Most immigrants come from outside the EU anyway, and are subject to stringent restrictions.

Immigrants are not the cause of the current economic crisis, and it would be foolish indeed to imagine that leaving the EU and/or closing the door on immigrants would solve our problems.

Pete Winstanley, Durham