ABC Online reports "the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, says asylum seekers are being deliberately demonised in the industrialised world.
In a new report by the UN refugee agency, Mr Guterres says asylum seekers in Britain and Australia are often portrayed as criminals or bringers of disease.
The report is particularly critical of the language that some journalists and politicians are using to describe asylum seekers.
The refugee agency's spokesman, Peter Kessler, says there are politicians in the UK who use the same kind of language as the regimes which carried out genocides in Bosnia and Rwanda.
"This same kind of language - use of the word cockroaches has even shown up amongst the politicians of industrialised countries such as even here in the UK - be it minor politicians from very minor parties," he said.
"But the fact that they're often given a national platform in the press this should be really reflected upon by people in countries like the UK and elsewhere."
This is welcome but a little late. The UNHCR has been slow to react to the propaganda excesses of the Howard Government, which have been in full swing from 2001. This current round of demonisations is awful but each iteration has been used to manipulate public opinion dishonestly. Last night's Insight program on SBS was an indication of just how in thrall to these lies average voters are. The transcript of the program can be read by clicking here.
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