In a viciously inflammatory editorial the Sun said, "The flood of shirkers, scroungers and criminals-with their drugs, guns and vice-has to be stopped." It promised "hard hitting facts". Its bigotry is based on lies. The Sun says, "Britain is the No 1 destination for asylum seekers."

In fact Britain has just 2 percent of the world's refugees and ranks ninth among 15 European countries in the number of asylum applications received.

The Sun says, "One million people pour into Britain every five years. A record 110,700 claimed asylum in Britain last year." In fact the number seeking asylum in Britain FELL last year. The Sun says, "Britain is being hit by a record number of new cases of HIV with hundreds of immigrants carrying the virus."

In fact a study of refugees in Dover found in its first six months there were "no actual serious illnesses detected among the people who claimed asylum-no TB, no AIDS/HIV".

The US has a ban on visitors with HIV. Its only effect has been to distract attention from real health needs, and infection rates are now rising. The Sun says, "Foreigners flocking to Britain are defrauding the NHS of £2 billion a year."

In fact the NHS would cease to function without "foreign" nurses. A report by the Royal College of Nursing in February found that a quarter of all nurses working in the NHS, 42,000, come from overseas. Some 2,000 qualified doctors are not allowed to work because they are refugees.