Get tough on illegal migrants

Sir, - The tragic death of a Polish van driver at Calais in France as a result of the violent action of migrants seeking to reach our island brutally illustrates quiet how bizarre our immigration and asylum policy is.

The van driver was on his way lawfully to Britain to contribute to our economy and society, as millions of other east Europeans have been doing in recent years.

By contrast, the migrants who caused his death had crossed two continents unlawfully and were willing to use dangerous violence to get in to our country.

As indicators of unsuitability for admission to our society, repeated unlawfulness and dangerous violence are hard to beat.

And yet had these highwaymen, and I use that term advisedly, reached Britain we would have had to entertain asylum and protection claims from them, and even if those claims were rejected, they would have been unlikely to have been returned to their own country.

This, of course, assumes that they bothered to apply for asylum. They might very well have chosen to disappear into the black economy in one of our major cities.

The Home Office estimates illegal immigration to be of the order of 150,000 people every year.

We need a government with the will to implement firm and speedy legal processes and ensure the certain deportation of all unlawful migrants.

That sense of continuity is something Scotland can be rightly proud of as we welcome the completion of a major technological feat

Otto Inglis. 6 Inveralmond Grove. Edinburgh.