The Editor,

Dear Sir

In reply to letter from Gloriel Knox (SHN November 14, 2001).

Australia does have an obligation under the UN Refugee Convention, which Australia signed 50 years ago, to take in asylum seekers, and assess their claims, which would have been a lot cheaper than paying any Pacific Island to take the refugees.

What about the “real illegal” people, overstaying their visas,British, Irish, Americans, and probably many others.

More than 14,000 are caught each year, we don’t put them in prison.

There is no queue, we do not have an embassy in Afghanistan or Iraq.

If any of us, being so judgemental of these people, suffered half of what they have endured, I bet we’d sell all we own, and grab the first “people smuggler” we could find, and get out to anywhere they would take us.

About your comment on giving regular lessons in Christianity, maybe we should take a few ourselves, Matthew 25.35. “Iwas hungry and you fed me,thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you took me in.”

Carol Fitzgerald,

Exeter.