Home Office tries to calm fears over asylum system

The Home Office tried desperately to shore up public confidence in the asylum system yesterday amid accusations of "outrageous" mismanagement and lax security.

Middle England has been incensed by reports of hotels and country houses being converted into induction centres for asylum-seekers, with hostility further fuelled by news of a doctor being forced to strike patients from his list to accommodate asylum-seekers.

The controversy coincided with fears that terrorists were exploiting the system to establish themselves in Britain. Sir John Stevens, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said "a large number" of terror suspects were under observation. Asked if they were linked to al-Qa'ida, he said: "There's no doubt they are."

The Home Office confirmed yesterday that a contract has been awardedto establish an induction centre for asylum-seekers at the three-star Coniston Hotel in Sittingbourne, Kent. The system came under more attack when it was revealed that Dr Uday Pathak, a GP in Stoke-on-Trent, had told Lydia Perry, 88, he could no longer treat her as he had to accommodate asylum-seekers.

The Home Secretary, David Blunkett, drew a distinction between terrorism and asylum-seekers. Terrorists, it was pointed out, could arrive in Britain as tourists or students.

A tribute service was held in Cheshire yesterday for Stephen Oake, the Special Branch detective murdered during a police raid in Manchester last week.