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The Conservatives' Welsh leader today claimed Britain was being "swamped" by asylum-seekers.

Nick Bourne said people felt overwhelmed by the "massive number" of migrants seeking asylum in Britain.

"It is an issue of great concern for those of us who feel there is a part to play for genuine asylum-seekers. But we don't want to be swamped by the massive numbers we have seen coming in so far," he told BBC Radio Wales.

Mr Bourne later told the Press Association: "I don't think it is a pejorative term.

"That is how people see it. I was very careful in my choice of language. People do feel swamped. It is a very real concern. Obviously genuine asylum-seekers are welcome. But a great many are not genuine. They are economic migrants.

"I am proud of being British as are most people including asylum-seekers. But it does not assist good race relations by not talking about it and saying there was not a problem. People are rightly concerned about it."

The number of asylum-seekers arriving in Britain reached record levels of almost 111,000 during 2002.

Meanwhile figures across the EU as a whole fell by 1% during the year compared with a 20% rise in the UK.

A record number of 8,900 people claimed asylum last October. That figure will form the basis for Tony Blair's pledge to halve the number of asylum-seekers by September.

A Labour Party spokesman said: "This kind of language is not helpful."

He added: "In practical terms Britain was mid-table in the European league in terms of the number of asylum-seekers."

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The Conservatives' Welsh leader today claimed Britain was being "swamped" by asylum-seekers. Nick Bourne said people felt overwhelmed by the "massive number" of migrants seeking asylum in Britain. "It is an issue of great concern for those of us who feel there is a part to play for genuine asylum-seekers.

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Article regarding the stigma's around asylum seekers and why the press plays such a big part in it.

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Article regarding the stigma's around asylum seekers and why the press plays such a big part in it.

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In this article, the British press is called out for stigmatising asylum seekers. According to the author, the press keeps mentioning them in outrages headlines which is "both irrelevant to the story and discriminatory towards the group"

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Adrian Thomas

" Soft-touch Britain: the asylum capital of Europe"; " Refugees made our lives hell too, say neighbours"; and " DNA test for bogus refugees scrapped as expensive flop". All are headlines that have appeared recently in the UK press, despite it now being almost a decade since the Press Complaints Commission first heard from charities on why coverage like this should stop. And despite it now being almost a decade since the PCC issued guidance to address what it agreed was widespread inaccurate reporting.

These headlines and others like them fail a simple test - substitute a reference to asylum status for the words "black" or "Jewish" and you begin to see why it is both irrelevant to the story and discriminatory towards the group if not the individual portrayed.

But why does this matter? And why does it matter so much right now?

On 6 July 2011, David Cameron, facing widespread public revulsion over the extent and depth of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal, announced the public inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the British press.

Few could have predicted quite what Lord Justice Leveson's investigations would unleash over the following months; neither the political and personal dramas played out for the world to see, nor the stream of revelations seeming to lead inevitably to the conclusion that something, somewhere, in the way our newspapers are regulated is broken and must be fixed.

The British Red Cross is not an organisation you might expect to be following these developments closely. We work on a daily basis with reporters that refuse to ignore the plight of people in crisis - in our own country and overseas - raising awareness of important issues and the work that we do.

But while it may not be our place to take a view on what kind of regulatory framework should supplant the PCC in the coming months, we will be awaiting the publication of Leveson's findings - expected in the next few weeks - with great interest.

The 2003 PCC guidance ruled that the phrase "illegal asylum seeker" is inaccurate. The guidance also addressed the confusion between asylum and immigration and explains why it is not appropriate to describe asylum seekers as "illegal immigrants".

Yet in an independent poll commissioned last month by the British Red Cross, 72% of respondents said newspaper reporting about asylum seekers and refugees is negative. The poll also revealed widespread confusion between the terms "refugees", "asylum seekers" and "illegal immigrants" and suggests what the public most readily associate with media coverage of refugees are words such as "scroungers".

The sort of coverage we regularly see unfairly stigmatises individuals and undermines the very institution of asylum. We hear from politicians willing in principle to support our calls for an end to the vagaries of a system that leaves many destitute - but feel unable to do so for fear of a media backlash and a loss of public face.

We also see the effect of associations made in print between those that seek asylum and criminality, and a tainted public perception of the many very decent people we encounter in our work.

Clearly the PCC guidance hasn't worked. What we would like to see is a number of small but important measures that address accuracy and fairness of reporting; with protection against discriminatory and immaterial references to asylum status in much the same way that the current code ensures reporting that is blind to race and religion.

Instead of a regulatory code that depends upon those personally and individually slighted making a complaint, we would like to see more proactive monitoring of standards. And we feel it only right that unfair representation of groups of people can be adequately challenged.

The Red Cross movement's unique position under the Geneva Convention means we have a duty to support those fleeing persecution. In 2010, just under 18,000 asylum applications were made in the UK and 3,480 were eventually accepted as refugees under what are relatively narrow and often hard to prove legal criteria. Not exactly the cascade suggested by much of the coverage we have seen.

Many of the 10,000 refugees and asylum seekers we work with on an annual basis have incredible stories of tragedy and heroism to tell. Often those finally granted indefinite leave to remain can be among the most patriotic and loyal British citizens it is possible to find.

Most individual journalists fight to tell stories that are factually and ethically robust in the face of significant pressures. But at the same time as enshrining press freedom and the upholding of the public interest, it should be possible for whatever Leveson's report ushers in to raise everyone's game on an issue of basic humanitarianism.
Adrian Thomas is the British Red Cross head of external relations Topics

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Asylum seekers continue to be stigmatised by the British press

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Adrian Thomas " Soft-touch Britain: the asylum capital of Europe"; " Refugees made our lives hell too, say neighbours"; and " DNA test for bogus refugees scrapped as expensive flop". All are headlines that have appeared recently in the UK press, despite it now being almost a decade since the Press Complaints Commission first heard from charities on why coverage like this should stop.

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The RCMP intercepted a grand total of 20,593 asylum seekers crossing into Canada last year between legal border checkpoints, newly released numbers reveal.

READ MORE: Canada can't deport illegal foreigners as countries are refusing to take them

On Friday, Citizenship and Immigration Canada released its tally for the number of interceptions in December - which came in at 1,978- finally allowing the department to then add up the overall total for the entire year.

The crossings began to make headlines last winter when a few dozen people made their way across frozen fields in Manitoba, some suffering severe frostbite in the process. By the summer, the number of irregular crossings had soared - particularly in Quebec - where hundreds streamed across each day and were promptly arrested.
READ MORE: Over 1,600 asylum seekers intercepted at the border in November
The Safe Third Country Agreement meant that if they had come through a legal border checkpoint between Canada and the U.S., most would have been sent back. The government has faced repeated calls to close what critics call a loophole in the agreement, but it remains unchanged.

It's unclear how many of the people who crossed illegally have subsequently received approval to make an asylum claim.

A significant backlog developed in processing the applications, but government officials have said that among the thousands of Haitian nationals who came to Canada last year hoping to claim asylum, less than 10 per cent have been approved to move ahead with those claims.

It's also unclear how many of the asylum seekers may have been deported, however, or how many may have left Canada voluntarily. Thousands received work permits that allowed them to secure employment while they waited for a decision.

Largest influx in decades

Once asylum claims made inland or at legal border crossing are also factored in, the total number of asylum claims made in Canada in 2017 stood at 49,775.

That's the highest total seen in at least two decades.
READ MORE: Asylum seekers get health-care benefits first, eligibility questions later
In comparison, there were 37,845 claimants in the year 2000, and in 2008, there were 36,920. The highest volume before last year came in 2001, with a total of 44,695 asylum claimants.

The year with the lowest number of claims since the dawn of the millennium was 2013, with 10,380.

Bracing for 2018

While 2017 may have been a big year for asylum seekers coming to Canada, 2018 may prove equally challenging for border officials and the Immigration and Refugee Board, which determines who is eligible to make a claim.

The United States will, starting this summer, begin lifting the temporary protection status currently enjoyed by over 300,000 foreign nationals living on U.S. soil.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale and Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen have both maintained that Canada is prepared for a possible fresh influx of people and is taking a "whole of government" approach.

Meanwhile, Liberal MPs have continued to travel to the United States this winter to meet with diaspora communities affected by the TPS lifts and to explain the realities of seeking asylum in Canada.
-With files from Amy Minsky

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RCMP intercepted over 20,000 asylum seekers in 2017

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The RCMP intercepted a grand total of 20,593 asylum seekers crossing into Canada last year between legal border checkpoints, newly released numbers reveal. READ MORE: Canada can't deport illegal foreigners as countries are refusing to take them On Friday, Citizenship and Immigration Canada released its tally for the number of interceptions in December - which came in at 1,978- finally allowing the department to then add up the overall total for the entire year.