OVER the past few weeks, I have read many letters concerning illegal immigrants and asylum seekers, most complaining that we should send them back and that Britain is a "soft touch."

But I think many of your correspondents do not realise that this is a massive problem for all the other countries on the continent.

Because of these problems and the lack of progress there is an increase in popularity and support for the fascist politicians and in Germany and Austria, a re-emergence of support for Nazi organisations.

In Switzerland, where 35 per cent of the population of Geneva is non-Swiss, they have just had a referendum on whether foreigners should be made to leave.

But even though the country is not bogged down by party politics, they still have not been able to resolve the situation.

So are correspondents like Councillor Graham Pound (Letters, February 14) really trying to help the situation or are they the ramblings of an uninformed party politician with nothing constructive to say?

Has he any idea of the size of operation it would take to return these people to their country of origin, and what is to stop them from making the same journey here again?

Does it really help for people like Coun Pound to make cheap political points? The Tories' record was just as bad as the present government because it is an incredibly difficult and massive problem.

Short term, the stopping of benefits may help, but long term the only answer can be to help them make their own countries safer and more economically secure.

But, please, less of the uninformed political bluster which only makes people even more apathetic and dismissive of politicians.

At the end of the day, all governments are limited in their powers by international convention and the truth is that illegal immigration is a massive problem for every country.

I am sure if Coun Pound and his colleagues have a real answer that every government in Europe would be very happy to hear it.

KEN HOLDEN, Douglas Grove, Darwen.