Sir, - It is in everyone's interests that a sensible and humane system operates on Europe's frontiers to regulate entry from outside. This is not going to happen if economic migrants are allowed to present themselves as political refugees. Your article (January 11th) on the problems of European security controls ignores the awkward fact that the alleged refugees from Turkey and Iraq in southern Italy do not seem to be fleeing on specific personal grounds.
As some newspapers have pointed out, the situation in the areas where they come from is currently quiet and the timing of their arrival in Italy looks as if it was prompted by the likelihood that border controls would be laxer at Christmas and the New Year. Anyone who lives in Turkish communities in Western European cities will know the "asylum-seekers" are often quite open about the fact that they are manipulating the naivety of Western public opinion and the administrative processes. It is not uncommon to find people who claim to be Kurds when they are not, simply because they know they will have an easier time.
Meanwhile thousands and thousands of bona fide travellers who do not wish to settle illegally or work in another country but simply want to travel on business or take short holidays find European Union member states slamming the door in their face with impossibly strict visa requirements. This is a real injustice which the media furore over the situation in Italy has obscured. - Yours, etc.,
Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey, Dublin 4.