Last week’s report by the Independent Asylum Commission, which describes our asylum system as “shameful”, flies in the face of reality. It’s almost as if the former appeal court judge Sir John Waite is pulling our legs. His conclusion - that the UK’s treatment of asylum seekers falls “seriously below” the standards of a civilised society and that our treatment of them has “blemished” our international reputation - is, to say the least, a slight exaggeration.

Indeed it was only last month that the government proposed tightening immigration laws relating to asylum, citizenship and visas because it is felt - with justification - that too many people from abroad are taking advantage of our welcome and hospitality. This is borne out by Migration Watch UK’s prediction that more than 2m people will arrive in the UK every 10 years for the foreseeable future - taking our population to 65m by 2016.

Even the Home Office’s own figures note that the UK has the third-largest foreign population and labour force in the European Union - currently about 2.2m.

It’s not exactly hard to come to the UK. A couple of years ago a close friend of mine who was getting married decided to invite an uncle over from Punjab, in India. The uncle duly received an invitation and a sponsorship form and within a few weeks had obtained a visa from the British high commission in Delhi. Just like that.

There don’t seem to be any stringent checks on foreigners arriving here. And various independent investigations - including one by the BBC’s Panorama programme - have already documented how easy it is to obtain visas and British passports by duplicitous means.

You would think that when so many people in Britain are concerned about the polarisation of communities and the erosion of a single national and cultural identity, that there would be some joined-up thinking. Surely, you might surmise, the government and the Foreign Office are singing from the same hymn sheet.

Alas, you’d be wrong. Although Gordon Brown’s administration talks about tightening existing laws, it doesn’t seem to convey this to the visa sections in British consulates and embassies around the world - least of all in the Indian subcontinent.

It’s quite simple, really: if our government wants to control immigration and asylum, it needs to design a robust and consistent policy for entry, visas and deportation of failed applications for asylum - and this then has to be communicated to all relevant agencies. Soundbites about our rotten treatment of asylum seekers may help to win elections but they don’t safeguard the interests of the country at large.

Before Waite described our nation as “shameful”, perhaps he should have talked to ordinary people to get a real sense of what most of us feel about the existing asylum system. Perhaps he could have explained to them why some asylum seekers, allegedly fleeing for their lives, are crossing countries and even continents to get to the UK (surely, if you are genuinely seeking safety, you would ask for haven in the nearest country).

As everyone seems to know - except Waite - people flock here because our system of issuing visas and our social benefits system are skewed in favour of those entering Britain. However, unlike his commission, British people know full well when their hospitality and their country’s welfare system are being abused and exploited.

Back to my friend and his relative. Surprisingly, his uncle missed the wedding and instead turned up a few days later. A couple of weeks on, he asked to be shown the wonderful sights of our country. My friend did as much as he could, showing him around London, Manchester, Stratford-upon-Avon, the Lake District and north Wales.

Eventually he had to say: “I’m sorry but I can’t keep taking you around because we can’t afford it.” His uncle took offence. “Well, then,” he said, “get me a job so I can earn some money of my own.”

Anyone who comes over on a tourist visa, of course, cannot work here legally. Naturally, my friend - being a pillar of the community - declined to help, explaining to his uncle that he too would be breaking the law if he helped him to find illegal employment. Rather miffed, his uncle decided to move in with another relative in Middlesex.

Almost a year later, my friend spoke to the relative who had taken him in. This man said that he had given the uncle many hints about going home to India - but he just didn’t take any notice. Apparently, six months is the minimum period for a tourist visa. Why, the uncle’s new host asked plaintively, are tourists given such a long period of stay in this country?

As many British Asians know only too well, living with visitors with whom you have little in common can be a nightmare. Getting them to go home is almost impossible. Indeed the uncle’s host said he felt as though he was living in the Big Brother house with a guest from hell.

So you can imagine how flabbergasted he was when the uncle suggested at the end of the six months that he wanted to extend his stay. No way, thought his host, who then helped him pack his bags and ordered a taxi to the airport.

This is quite a typical scenario. In other parts of our communities, “arranged” marriages are nothing more than economic contracts that enable young men from the Indian subcontinent to stay in Britain.

Even so-called spiritual guides, such as the Sikh a cousin of mine once invited over, can be suspect. After six months the guru suddenly told my cousin that he was being persecuted in India - for being a Sikh. And, yes, he wanted to apply for political asylum.

It was like a sketch from Goodness Gracious Me. Yet the guru was serious: he knew that if he lodged an application for asylum, it might be years before the government heard his case. In the meantime he’d be free to do as he pleased. The next day he did a runner. Thus a Sikh who had nothing to complain about in his native land became one of the 60,000 people who, according to Migration Watch UK, enter this country every year on a visitor’s visa and then disappear.

Most visitors from the Indian subcontinent, I’m afraid, will do whatever they can to stay in the UK. Maybe Sir John Waite could consider making that the subject of his next commission.

Roshan Doug is a poet and fellow of the Royal Society of Arts

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