It is too simplistic to regard the decision to use the Grand Ocean Hotel as a temporary haven for asylum seekers as yet another example of the Government's duplicity.

Which of course it is. And while it will undoubtedly be good for profits for the owners of the former Butlins holiday camp, it will be worrisome news for those living in the vicinity.

Some asylum seekers, genuine or otherwise, have shown themselves to be reckless, violent individuals if they are not given everything to which they believe they are entitled.

However, much more importantly, the decision to allow these people into Saltdean must underscore an important truth for all of us. It is that international migration has become a global concern demanding global responses.

The "not in my back yard" argument has become largely irrelevant as developed countries around the world seek a 21st Century solution to their common predicament.

While the flow of people across national borders is commonplace worldwide, the most compelling problems which give rise to frightening newspaper headlines are the result of the flow from the poorer to the richer countries.

Whether these people are genuine asylum seekers or simply unskilled migrants looking for a better life, their presence in Britain highlights the reality that national borders everywhere are virtually beyond control.

Home Secretary David Blunkett's announcement that he intends to offer work permits to 200,000 skilled foreigners this year is yet another aspect of the predicament. A decade ago, the figure was 30,000.

He said he was proud to set up a system allowing more foreign workers into Britain than any other country in the world. But he omitted any comment about it already being an overcrowded country, four times more densely populated than France.

He did not even nod towards the fact that the system in Britain is out of control. Even America, with a population almost five times the size of ours, only allows 180,000 a year on its work permit scheme.

However, while Mr Blunkett chirrups on about such immigration being good for the economy, Sir Andrew Green, head of the think-tank Migrationwatch UK, claims no serious economist believes large scale immigration has any economic benefit.

Whatever the truth, the reverse of the "skilled immigrant worker" coin is this year, 200,000 trained people will leave lesser developed countries that can ill afford to lose them.

It all points to the need for an enlightened world body capable of developing international immigration and emigration practices.

It would need to deal with such thorny questions as whether to help or chastise those countries with regimes from which people flee. It is not the same as saying, simplistically, world peace is a good idea.

The creation of such an organisation is surely achievable.

At its heart will be people who believe not in stopping migration, but in working with it so that everyone benefits from the movement of people around the world.