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  To be fair to the signatories of the Dublin Convention (and Mrs T), when the treaty was signed back in June 1990 Europe was a very different place. It was half its current size if one counts the current members of the EU, the Soviet Union still existed and East Germany was undergoing collapse. When it was being drawn up there was no indication that the DDR was about to undergo meltdown. Asylum was back then mostly used for genuine political reasons and not just used as a mean of travelling in lieu of a passport as it is so often used these days. Politics, and European economics and demographics have changed enormously since those days and Europe was not subjected to the mass movement of peoples from the east seeking economic betterment as it is these days. Everything is easy to criticise with hindsight.
  
  On another note it is my understanding that the persons staying in the hotel near the Eastern Docks that Paul referred to are generally only there prior to dispersal across the country. Most have only been in the UK a few days - it is hardly surprising that they did not 'integrate', whatever that means.

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