Politicians 'spread fear on immigration'

Published on Tuesday 18 May 2010 19:35

POLITICIANS are guilty of scaremongering about immigration, MSPs were told yesterday.

A solicitor who provides advice to immigrants said politicians should not peddle misinformation about such a contentious issue.

Stewart Cunningham, senior solicitor at the Ethnic Minorities Law Centre, told Holyrood's equal opportunities committee: "Politicians can, I think, sometimes scaremonger and feed that fear among our constituents, and I think we have to take the lead in addressing that."

The committee is holding an inquiry into migration and trafficking.

Rami Ousta, the head of Black and Ethnic Minority Infrastructure in Scotland, said immigrants who had lived here for a longer time

"feel most attention is given to the new arrivals at the expense of their own benefits and interests", although this was a myth.