`Bogus refugee' claims undermined
01 January 1991
`Bogus refugee' claims undermined
artdoc March=1995
The widespread use of detention for asylum-seekers in Britain (as
in the rest of Europe) is part of a package of deterrent measures
predicated on the premise, often repeated by politicians, that
the vast majority of asylum-seekers to Europe in recent years
have not been genuine refugees at all but poverty-stricken
economic migrants seeking material gain. The ideology of `bogus
refugees' has in turn fuelled the rapid increase in racist
attacks on asylum-seekers. It was revealed in July that research
showing the `economic migrant' theory to be false has been
suppressed. The Home Office conducted - and then buried -
research which shows that most of those granted either refugee
status or exceptional (humanitarian) leave to remain were
well-educated and highly skilled, and were under-employed in
Britain. The Home Office denied suppressing the research and
claimed that the methodology was faulty. Guardian 4 & 6.7.94.
Statewatch, Vol 4 no 6, November-December 1994