In late 2003, the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) declared the phrase ‘illegal asylum seekers’ inherently inaccurate. However, the same segments of the press still bray over ‘soft-touch Britain’. Only the words have changed.

In the six months before the guidelines were issued on October 20, ‘illegal asylum seekers’ appeared in 44 articles in British papers. Since the PCC guidelines were issued, several newspapers ignored them. Just over a week later, The Sun put it in quotes in a politician’s speech; The Scotsman prefers to paraphrase using the term. The Sunday Mirror’s Carole Malone (irresponsibly) ducks the issue by enclosing the word in brackets in her article of January 11, which pits ‘the (illegal) asylum-seeker, the politically correct and minority groups’ against the ‘Decent British people…hard-working masses [who] are being bullied and criminalised’. Even The Guardian slipped up, although it apologised through its readers’ editor.

In addition, many papers are using alternative epithets, taking a leaf out of The Daily Express, which headlines with creative alternatives: ‘Victory at Last over Bogus Refugees; Asylum Spongers to Lose Benefits.’ The Daily Mail got round the PCC by calling asylum seekers without papers ‘Passport Cheats.’ References to ‘beggars’, ‘shirkers’ and ‘criminals’ also abound.

In the six months before the guidelines were issued, there were 156 references to ‘bogus’ asylum seekers in the British press. There have been nearly as many in half the time – in the three months since the PCC ruled out ‘illegal’. 24 Of the 117 references came from The Daily Express alone. After a fatal car crash, the paper headlined with ‘Gay Migrant in 90mph Drive: Illegal on Death Crash Rap’ on January 10. Nana Kemajou had no license or insurance, but although ‘unlicensed and uninsured’ were more relevant, it is clearly not as catchy as ‘gay migrant’.

Even The Daily Telegraph is getting in on the act. A country diary by Alexander Chancellor, published after the guidelines, began ‘My garden is… a haven for feathered asylum seekers from the great sporting estates of the county. They are certainly not ‘bogus’ asylum seekers, for they have every reason to expect to be murdered in the homelands from which they have fled.’ The implication is that human asylum seekers have less to fear than British pheasants.

Officially, the Dover police don’t have a position on anti-asylum seeker articles, but one officer told The Guardian, ‘Every time the press attacks asylum seekers, it doesn’t help on the ground. As soon as it appears in the press, feelings begin to rise, you can sense it.’ The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees claimed the UK press had given ‘prominence to outlandish and scaremongering claims from fringe groups and individuals’. It also said there had been an ‘unwarranted association of asylum seekers with issues such as crime and disease’. Despite News of the World headlines like ‘Asylum Sponger is Convicted Thief’, those seeking asylum are statistically more likely to be victims of crime than perpetrators.

Pursuing complaints over even the most ludicrous stories is an uphill struggle. A front-page story published by The Star, ‘Asylum Seekers Eat our Donkeys’, quotes an unnamed police insider saying ‘Immigrants…like eating donkey,’ and reports the animal is a Somalian delicacy. An investigation is underway regarding accuracy after a reader pointed out that donkey meat is forbidden in Somalia under Islamic law. However, the PCC rejected six protests regarding bias, saying the actual allegation was presented as comment. The Commission also said that clause 13 of the code of practice, which defines discrimination, only exists to protect individuals, and not groups.

Legislation is currently restricted to combating race hatred. At the Labour Party Conference, David Blunkett promised to extend this to cover religious hatred. However, the variety of races and religions represented by asylum seekers mean that it will be equally tough to prosecute under this new law. So, while the press would never dare to run ‘Jews Eat our Donkeys’ or ‘Time to Crackdown on Catholic Scroungers’, it looks like open season on asylum seekers for a long time to come.

Banned from Indian occupied territory, Iftikhar has been working for Kashmiri independence for decades. He frequently returns to Azad (Urdu for ‘free’) Kashmir to visit family. The area has its own legislative assembly, but remains administered by Pakistan and under threat from India. ‘In 1998, eight of my relatives died in an Indian mortar attack. On the same day, a sniper shot dead a cousin of mine, a teacher, as she crossed the courtyard of her house. She was 27, the breadwinner for her family. The papers didn’t even mention it.’

He is dismissive of the token UN observation group. ‘I served in the Royal Navy for eight years, including the first Gulf War, and have seen Indian shells coming into the towns. The UN say it was “small arms fire”.’ UNMOGIP (UN Military Observer Group India and Pakistan) was set up to monitor the 1949 ceasefire, not promote diplomacy. The Kashmiri conflict, he continues, could showcase the strengths of the UN, but the organisation is unwilling to commit the resources.

In turn, India accuses the Pakistani army and groups of mujaheddin of engaging in covert cross-border operations. Iftikhar admits that three Kashmiri women were executed in December (allegedly by the obscure Islamic group Lashkar Jabbar) for not wearing burqas. Acid throwing and rape have been carried out in the name of Islam and the ‘liberation’ of Kashmir. However, he believes the widespread, state-sanctioned rape of thousands of Kashmiri women by the Indian army is not comparable to the actions of a few militants. He vehemently denies that the majority of Muslims support groups like Lashkar-e-Toiba, made up exclusively of foreign veterans of the Afghan wars.

‘The splinter groups are unpredictable and uncoordinated, and responsible for many abuses. Attacks like these alienate most Muslims; so who really gains? Fiqh (the jurisprudence of Islam) states Islamic penal law does not apply in occupied territories, so these executions are not sanctioned by our creed, if indeed Muslims are responsible.

‘The international community must support moderate negotiators, or fundamentalists on both sides will benefit. In south east Asia, the West was indifferent to the suffering of the Afghan people, so the war against foreign occupation was led by Bin Laden and Mullah Mohammed Omar.’ He stresses that an armed struggle cannot succeed without political focus, but does not condemn the guerrillas. Members of his own family have died fighting for Kashmir. Iftikhar cites South Africa as an example of a country transformed by a successful armed struggle, ‘but sucess was through forcing the involvement of the international community, and not through bombs.’ Islamabad has also expressed interest in negotiations hosted by a third party, using the American-led Northern-Ireland peace initiative as a model.

Iftikhar welcomes the recent London meeting between the All-Parties Huriyat Conference (APHC, the collection of Kashmiri separatist groups) and delegates from India’s opposition group (The Congress Party, led by Sonia Ghandi). However, travel restrictions, lack of parliamentary representation and the threat of an Indian army crackdown all hobble the APHC. India will not soften its stance under Prime Minister Vajpayee’s current right wing government. Unless the UN brings its power to bear, negotiations will fail.

Can the APHC control violent splinter groups? Although he does not doubt their commitment to peace, Iftikhar thinks true progress towards Kashmiri self-determination would achieve more than APHC decrees. ‘The UN must not forget its resolutions of August 1948 and January 1949. As the former colonial power, and home to the largest expatriate community of Kashmiris in the world, Britain bears particular responsibility for fostering negotiations between India and Pakistan.’

The lack of core values and inaction by British Kashmiri organisations frustrates him. ‘Fifty years have elapsed; yet Kashmir remains in the shadows. Because we don’t have passports of our own, we are classed as Pakistanis, but for Kashmir the ideal is independence, not Pakistani or Indian domination.’

As I have been writing this interview, at least 30 more civilians have died. The largest massacre, allegedly by Islamic militants, was squeezed between headlines on the Iraqi war and rising council tax. While attention is focused on Iraq, Muslim and Hindu extremists in south Asia flourish. Every bomb that hit Baghdad shook the foundations of the UN. Rather than sulking on the sidelines, the UN should rebuild its authority by spearheading peace initiatives between the Muslims and Hindus of Kashmir.