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Media coverage of asylum seekers came under attack from trade unionists last week as Unison delegates at their annual conference denounced newspaper reports linking refugees with criminality and abuses of the benefits system.

London delegate Mandy Berger told delegates one newspaper had claimed recently that asylum seekers with HIV were "swamping" NHS wards. During a debate on asylum seekers’ rights, she condemned such "media lies" and the "cynical, racist and hypocritical" government policies towards asylum seekers that had emerged in recent years.

Rahul Patel from Westminster Council also attacked the government, and the home secretary in particular, for comments about asylum seekers, which he said were often seized upon by the far right, including the British National Party.

"David Blunkett, day in, day out, comes out with statements attacking asylum seekers," Patel said, citing as an example the home secretary’s assertion last year that immigrant families in Britain should speak English in their own homes.

Several speakers stressed that despite frequent media reports to the contrary, refugees were not to blame for problems in Britain’s health and welfare systems.

Onay Kasab from Greenwich said that in the current "poisonous and hysterical climate", he was sick of hearing local councillors condemn fascism but then proceed to cut services, which in turn gave rise to poverty. "We have to ask who is responsible for the climate that allows racism to breed," Kasab said.

In a debate on the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, which places greater duty on public sector bodies to promote racial equality, delegates expressed concern that its powers did not extend to private companies. They passed a motion calling for a Unison campaign to force the private sector to adopt policies that mirror those of the Act.

- A main aim of Community Care’s Right to Refuge Campaign is to tackle the atmosphere of hysteria and prejudice towards refugees and asylum seekers. Visit www.communitycare.co.uk for more details.