EDITORIAL: Don't let the tabloids take over asylum

In 1986, my wife and I arrived at Heathrow with two suitcases each and 2,000 between us to start a new life. We did this because as a white conscript in the South African military, I would have been required, at the height of the township uprising of the mid-1980s, to do things that I was not prepared to do.

We had it easy. Because of our families' British heritage, we did not have to throw ourselves on the mercy of officialdom to request asylum.

Family and friends were able to give us an initial place to stay and some support. And we were welcomed by most of the people with whom we came into contact.

So it is uncomfortable, to say the least, to see the treatment meted out to the current wave of asylum seekers, many of whom are not that different from me, except that most were forced to leave their birthplaces for far more serious reasons than I was.

Yet, for them, there is not much in the way of a welcome. The soul-destroying wait for a decision about whether you are able to stay. The demeaning dependence on charity and grudging official handouts for food, clothing and other basic human needs. The isolation in shabby bedsits, not yet able to speak the language of the people around you. And if you are able to speak the language, the assault you are subjected to in the pages of our more strident newspapers.

And that's if you are an adult. As our feature article on page 12 points out, things can be even harder for the large percentage of newcomers who happen to be young. Not so much a welcome mat as a bed on a cold pavement in a strange city, for some. In nearly every major town and city in Britain now, youth workers are in the front line of trying to ensure that it is not so, of mitigating the isolation, dislocation and frequent exploitation to which young asylum seekers are vulnerable. Youth workers are in a key position to help them experience a different and more welcoming Britain than the one all too frequently shown by our tabloid newspapers.

This is a big responsibility. The type of welcome that we show will determine the kind of society we have 10 years from now and beyond, when the migrants from the current wave of brutality around the globe are either settled, thriving and helping the country to prosper, or a costly social problem that will continue to perplex politicians and policymakers.