Source: Inside Story

IN THE MEDIA coverage of the debate about asylum seekers over the past week, the assumption behind the Coalition’s claim that Australia has become a “soft touch” has gone largely unchallenged. Is it true – as the Coalition seems to be arguing – that significantly more asylum claims are being made in Australia than in comparable countries?

According to the latest figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the reverse is true. Using data supplied by individual governments, the UNHCR’s statistics reveal that Australia is well down the league table, both in terms of the number of asylum claims and the ratio of claims to our population...

Read the full article by Peter Browne at http://inside.org.au/a-soft-touch-not-according-to-the-latest-figures/.