International protection applicants

Sir, – I am concerned that the language reported recently across the print and broadcast media is supporting a discourse that is dehumanising international protection applicants, mainly those who are male and single.

Describing individuals in the context of numbers, returns, and deportations, and processes such as enforced clearing of encampments feed a narrative of othering and suspicion, and provide further fuel to negative forces that are already rearing their heads.

International protection applicants are first and foremost humans, people with life stories, experiences and emotions.

We need to develop and enact a system of processing all asylum applicants that fully respects their humanity. – Yours, etc,