In response to the publication today of the asylum statistics for the first quarter of 2008, Donna Covey, Chief Executive of the Refugee Council said:

“Yet again the government takes pride in a fall in people seeking asylum in the UK – but this is not a numbers game. A drop in asylum applications should only be celebrated if the world has become a safer place – and with wars raging around the world and serious human rights abuses continuing in places like Zimbabwe, Darfur and Burma this is patently not the case.

“As the statistics show, asylum seekers do not come from peaceful countries. They come from countries where violence is commonplace, and where the government is either the perpetrator or helpless to do anything about it. Our role is to offer a place of safety for those desperate people fleeing for their lives – and it is something we should be proud of.”

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