AMNESTY International will be canvassing in St Helens this Saturday (September 27) with a giant petition and postcard which will eventually be sent to Tony Blair.

The group wants to highlight the plight of refugees around the world, including those who seek asylum in Britain. Amnesty is asking the Prime Minister to put human rights at the top of the foreign policy agenda and to act promptly to prevent the human rights crises that create refugees.

The group have invited local MPs Dave Watts and Gerry Bermingham, MEP Terry Wynn and leader of St Helens Council, Councillor Mike Doyle, to attend the event in Church Square.

Local Amnesty spokesman, Mike Reed, said: "Refugees are people whose desperate circumstances have pushed them to the extreme of abandoning their home and country to seek refuge anywhere.

"The terrible events in Rwanda and Zaire brought home to us the dreadful consequences of war and repression on ordinary people - families torn apart, lives threatened, people forced to leave their home and livelihood to escape terror and seek a safe refuge. And former Yugoslavia reminded us all that even in modern day Europe people may be forced to flee from torture, killing and terror."

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