Roger Bingham, spokesman for Liberty:

"Policies that were tried and failed under Michael Howard are now being resurrected by David Blunkett. They're no fairer, no better thought-out and no more likely to have a positive effect this time around.

"We do welcome the plan to allow refugees entry from UNHCR camps - we hope this will prove a very positive step, but we must wait to see whether it can or whether it will simly be a token gesture amid a wider policy to prevent people escaping from persecution to the UK.

"Mr Blunkett says this tough announcement will help defeat racism. We hope he's right; but we're conscious that politicians' 'tough talk' on immigration in the past has usually had the opposite effect".