I am reluctant to speak on behalf of Anne Lubin because I know she is more than capable of speaking for herself. However, I hope she will permit me to try to answer R W Selway's often repeated question about why "a person fleeing in fear of his life should travel halfway across Europe to seek asylum in this country instead of stopping in the first safe region reached".

The simple answer is that the majority of people do not.

In January 2002 (the last time figures were available), the United Nations High Commission for Refugees listed 19.8m people as 'cause for concern'. This represents a breathtaking one in 300 of the world's population. Of that number 12 million are classified as refugees and 923,000 as asylum seekers.

The main host countries for these people were Pakistan and Iran (note the proximity of Afghanistan and Iraq respectively) which accounted for about two million each.

Other Third World countries with high refugee populations included Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Europe was host to 18.3 per cent of the total, with Germany accommodating the largest number, just short of one million. The UK stood at 20th in the world table.

This strongly suggests that few refugees or asylum seekers venture far from their home countries.

The number of people actually getting to the UK is about two per cent of the world's total, which leaves the question of why the few people who get here make the journey in the first place.

The UNHCR gives the following reasons; people have family connections or know people already settled here, we speak English, the most widely spoken language on the planet, there are historical links between this country and their own and, finally, they believe this country to be welcoming and tolerant, which at times it can be.

David Rowlands

Goddard Avenue,