Mideast, Asian immigrants demonised: former PM

Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser says Middle East and Asian illegal immigrants in Australia are being "demonised" and that white asylum seekers would have got a better deal than them.

Fraser, who heads the aid agency CARE Australia, called on Australians not to view illegal arrivals now in detention camps as criminals.

"It's quite clear that many Australians have been given quite an adverse impression of people in the detention centres," Fraser told Australian television yesterday.

He said white farmers from South Africa or Zimbabwe would have got a better deal.