For years the right-wing tabloids have been promoting a "Fortress Europe" agenda by scapegoating ansylum seekers and other vulnerable minority groups. Words such as "scroungers", "spongers", "swamping" and "bogus" typecast refugees as petty criminals and con-artists. Strangely enough, the Daily Mail has never made the connection that two of its Thatcherite darlings from the late 1980's - Michael Howard and Michael Portillo - are both the sons of immigrants.

Immigration is good for Britain. With a rapidly ageing population, the UK needs immigrants to fill the jobs being created in the low-paid service sector. No-one is suggesting that uncontrolled immigration is the answer to Europe's problems. But the existence of fences and barbed wire across our continent is a clear indication of our future.

The Berlin Wall may have fallen, but new barriers have gone up in its place. Making racist comments about asylum seekers and locking them up in detention centres is not a solution. Europe's Far Right has lost the plot, kidding voters that "tough" solutions can be found to this problem. The truth is that without a co-ordinated and above all humane strategy, the refugees will keep on coming, and the race relations issue in our own country will continue to be exacerbated.

Today's picket has been called by No Borders and the West London Anarchist group.

The Daily Mail's offices are on Derry Street in Kensington. (Nearest tube: High Street Kensington.) Turn right once you leave the station and Derry Street is the first turn on the right.