RECENT letters describing the migrants in Calais as “scroungers”, “intruders” or “knife-wielding young men”, whose main purposes in trying to reach the UK is to access our benefits system, reflect the many myths and lies about asylum seekers peddled by sections of our media.

In reality, most people leaving their countries and heading to Europe are fleeing horrendous situations of daily carnage and extreme brutality.

They come from Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea and Nigeria, where the choice is flee or die.

Adults and children spend months crossing deserts and dodging bullets only to be exploited by traffickers who demand large sums of money to cram them into unseaworthy boats for the perilous Mediterranean crossing.

More than 2,000 have died at sea this year.

The vast majority of the four million people who have fled Syria remain in neighbouring countries, which have been overwhelmed by the crisis.

Lebanon, for example, has 1.2 million Syrians within a total population of 4.5 million.

In Europe Greece, in financial crisis, is struggling to cope with 50,000 arrivals a month.

Germany has just agreed to accept all Syrians, no matter which EU country they first entered, while the UK has taken just a few hundred.

Under international law, anyone has a right to apply for asylum in any country that has signed the 1951 Convention: there is nothing to say that refugees must claim asylum in the first country they reach.

The Convention recognises that people fleeing war and persecution may have to use irregular means in order to enter a safe country – there is no legal way to travel to the UK for the specific purpose of seeking asylum, so arriving hidden in lorries is usual.

Since seeking asylum is a legal process, there is no such thing as an “illegal” or “bogus” asylum seeker.

Asylum seekers do not come to the UK to claim benefits – indeed most know nothing about welfare support before they arrive.

Far from being a ‘soft touch’, the UK system is tough and complex.

Asylum seekers are not allowed to work – a single person receives £5 a day for food, clothing, travel etc – and cannot choose where they live.

Their accommodation is not paid for by the local council. The decision making process is also extremely strict.

A humane, Europe-wide response for the protection of these desperate refugees is urgently needed.

ELSPETH WOLLEN St Andrews Court, Wroughton