Deport illegals

The tragic death of a Polish van driver at Calais as a result of the violence of migrants seeking to reach our island brutally illustrates how bizarre our immigration and asylum policy is. The 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 crossedtwocontinentsunlawfully and were willing to use dangerous violence to get into 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” 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.

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

OTTO INGLIS Inveralmond Grove, Edinburgh