John Wadham, director of Liberty:

"We welcome Mr Blunkett's concern that people should remain calm and not confuse all asylum seekers with terrorists - any more than we should imagine that no asylum seekers have a genuine need to flee persecution and come
here.

"But it hasn't helped that the Government has done markedly little to
discourage the demonising of asylum seekers; that the authorities appear to
have leaked generously in identifying loads of arrestees as asylum seekers
in recent weeks, and that the Home Office resorts to endless pledges to 'get
tough' on asylum with new policies rather than addressing basic failures in
the bureaucracy.

"About 100 million go through the UK every year: only 80,000 asylum seekers
come here. If terrorists want to come here, there's no reason to suppose
that they need to come here as asylum seekers".