THIS week, June 20 to 26, is Refugee Week. We the undersigned, members of Pershore Group of Amnesty International, want to use this opportunity to make some points to Journal readers about refugees and asylum seekers.

What is a refugee? Someone who has applied successfully for leave to remain in Britain because of persecution in his or her native country. By international agreement everyone has the right to seek this kind of asylum, and all countries have the duty to give it. In fact 60 per cent of the world's 10 million refugees are cared for in Africa and Asia, only two per cent in the UK.

What's it like to be an asylum seeker in Britain? You aren't allowed to do paid work, but many do work, voluntarily. What you get from the state is 30 per cent below the level of income support available to native benefit claimants. You can't choose where you live. Your accommodation is not paid for by local councils, and is usually in properties where no one else wants to live. Nearly all those working with asylum seekers say their clients are hungry, and can't afford clothes or shoes.

A police report said that the vast majority of asylum seekers are law abiding citizens, but are more likely to be victims of crime. There is evidence that distorted media treatment of asylum issues leads to more race-related crime.

Yet the latest figures available, for 2001, show that all migrants to the UK, including refugees and asylum seekers, made a net contribution to our economy of £2.5 million.

As campaigners for human rights all around the world, we feel it our duty to uphold the rights of some of the world's most vulnerable people here in our own country.

LYLAH GOODWIN, BEVERLEY JUGGINS, NESTA MAHONY, MIMA MEIKLE, BRON SOAN, CATHERINE WALLACE, PATRICIA WOODCOCK, Wick Grange, Wick.