Letter: Shameful deportation of refugees

Sir: Congratulations on your leading article (14 August) taking Charles Wardle, Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Home Office, to task for sending refugees from former Yugoslavia back to 'other safe European countries'.

I am ashamed on behalf of this country that you had cause to write it. As Richard Dunstan of Amnesty International said (Letters, 14 August), this is a question of morality, not legality.

It is hard enough to know how best humanitarian aid may successfully be offered. One thing we undoubtedly can and should do is suspend restrictive regulations and share more fairly with other European countries the responsibility for making asylum available to refugees from that tragic war zone.

Yours faithfully,

MARGARET STACEY

Leamington Spa, Warwickshire

15 August

The writer is Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Warwick.