A journalist from the Yorkshire Post has been awarded the Refugee Week Media Award.

Feature writer Sheena Hastings won the award, which is sponsored by the Refugee Council, for a feature about the public’s attitude towards asylum seekers and how ‘asylum’ has become a dirty term.

Judges said her work “demonstrated an understanding of the plight of asylum seekers and refugees in this country”.

Sheena, who received a prize of £500, said: “I’m very honoured. I think often a lot of media coverage paints all refugees and asylum seekers as spongers – but many are legitimately fleeing from persecution.”

The award was open to all newspaper and magazine journalists in Yorkshire who had written about the plight of asylum seekers and refugees in the past year.

It was presented as part of the annual Refugee Week, which celebrates the contribution that refugees have made – both culturally and economically – to the UK.

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