SIR - Refugee killed boy in hit-and-run' trumpeted the front-page headline (T&A, August 1), echoed by newsagents' contents bills throughout the city.

As a former journalist with a career spanning half a century, I found myself wondering why we were told of the criminal's refugee status.

Was it, perhaps, to distinguish the hit-and-run driver Ghaffar Ahmadi from any other Afghan nationals of the same name who might not be refugees?

Or was it because, statistically, it is a well-known fact (which has so far escaped me) that refugees are known to be prone to this kind of crime?

If the driver had been plain John Smith, would the headline have read Englishman killed boy in hit-and-run? I think not.

Or (perish the thought) was your headline just another ploy in the consistent demonisation of people from foreign climes who flee their country for the safety of UK?

Before the war, when Basque refugees came to Britain to escape the bombing of towns by the Luftwaffe, they were targeted by Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts, then so beloved of the Daily Mail.

Surely the T&A is not trying to follow in those unsavoury footsteps?

Karl Dallas, Church Green, Bradford

  • EDITOR'S COMMENT: I think Mr Dallas knows us better than that. There is widespread concern about the driving standards of foreign nationals moving to this country.
This week, for instance, North Yorkshire County Council revealed that young Eastern European immigrants were responsible for more than 14 per cent of fatal road accidents in the county.

Ghaffar Ahmadi had just finished a three-year driving ban when he hit his 17-year-old victim at 60mph and left him to die.