28 June 2001 Edition
Pre-emptive exclusion based on skin colour
Extremely disturbing reports are emanating from several NGOs that people who come to Ireland hoping to get protection from persecution in their own land, are being refused entry at Dublin Airport. In recent weeks, 13 people coming from Gambia in West Africa were stopped at Dublin airport and refused entry.
By chance, a human rights NGO was notified of this situation. The NGO contacted legal support and all 13 asylum seekers were eventually admitted to the asylum process.
Some weeks ago nine people, also from West Africa, were stopped at Immigration services at Dublin Airport. Without even a glance at some of their passports, they were shuffled off to a separate room where they were held for four hours. They were then given a letter, and told ``Come, come.'' They were taken to Mountjoy Jail and put in cells in the Basement.
They remained in Mountjoy for that night and the following day. The next morning they were taken back to the airport. It was only when they got to the airport and saw their baggage being taken off towards a flight that finally immigration authorities listened to their insistent claim that they wanted to seek asylum here.
Nobody knows just how many people have been refused entry in this way. Nobody knows how many have been despatched.
There can be little doubt that immigration officers are acting illegally in refusing entry to Ireland to these asylum seekers, and their detention in jail, pending `removal' from the state, also becomes illegal.
The Refugee Act, 1996, stipulates clearly that a person ``who arrives at the frontiers of the state seeking asylum in the State or seeking the protection of the State against persecution or requesting not to be returned or removed to a particular country or otherwise indicating an unwillingness to leave the state for fear of persecution'' may apply for refugee status.
Furthermore, the Act goes on state that ``The immigration officer concerned shall inform such a person, where possible in a language he or she understands, that he or she may apply for a declaration of refugee status'', which means apply for asylum. There can be little doubt that anyone who has reached Dublin Airport passport control off a flight is within the frontiers of Ireland.
The 1999 Immigration Act states: ``A person who at any time is in the State (whether lawfully or unlawfully) and is seeking the status of a refugee in the State may apply to the Minister for a declaration''.
Independent Monitoring ``unnecessary''
In February of this year the European Parliament Directorate General pointed out that ``there is no general admissibility procedures applying to all applications in Ireland.'' There is in fact no general transparent admission procedures in place at all. What goes on behind the closed doors in Passport Control is not seen by anyone, nor monitored by any independent observer, other than immigration officials who are officers under the Department of Justice and Garda Siochana. Skin colour, it appears, is sufficient to bar a person's entry to this country.
In the spring of last year, several NGOs, including the Irish Refugee Council, proposed an independent monitoring and user-friendly reception agency for people coming into this country, which the EU agreed to fund. Minister O'Donoghue, however, found the proposal `unnecessary', and refused to allow the plan to go ahead.
The Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference (ICBC), in an excellent statement last December entitled ``Pre-Emptive Exclusion of Asylum seekers? Disturbing evidence of a New Policy'', considered the striking fall-off in numbers of asylum seekers landing at Rosslare port. Up until 19 November, numbers at the port had averaged around 150-200 per month, and then, the very day that the Refugee Act of 1996 came fully into force, suddenly the numbers fell to zero or thereabouts. This year, only 24 people have applied for asylum at Rosslare, whereas last year the figure was 514 over the first 6 months.
A disturbing question
The reason for this fall off has been well publicised, though clearly remains without remedy. Immigration officers and ferry staff are monitoring passengers at Cherbourg and are refusing them passage to Ireland.
Travesty of Justice
The amazing case last week of Dr Grant Oyeye from Nigeria is just another example of what NGOs concerned with human rights fear: that immigration officials at Dublin Airport are carrying out a racist agenda on behalf of the Department of Justice in discriminating against black people.
Dr Oyeye came as a visitor to this country to attend a course in tropical medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin. He had a valid passport, a visa and some £3,000, with a prior booking at a Dublin guest house.
Unaccountably, he was detained on arrival at Dublin Airport and sent to jail, where he was held for nine days, until his release last Thursday, 21 June.
Order for his release was given by Judge Kelly, with the outrageous stipulations that he leave his passport with the Gardaí during his stay, undertake not to leave the state during the period, pay his legal costs and leave the state two weeks after the end of his course.
To add insult to injury, his release was conditional on withdrawal of his High Court challenge to the legality of his detention.
The immigration official, Breandán Ó Somacháin, stated in affidavit that he didn't believe Dr Oyeye had sufficient funds to support him during his visit. Yet Judge Kelly refused Dr Oyeye's application for the state to pay his legal costs, since the applicant was a qualified doctor with a job in Nigeria.
Would a qualified doctor from white Caucasian origin, visiting from perhaps Canada or the US, have been imprisoned in Mountjoy for nine days? Would a court have dared to release him on condition he give an undertaking not to prosecute the state for illegal detention?
Sinn Féin protests Waste Management Bill
Dublin Sinn Féin representatives Daithí Doolan, Aengus Ó Snodaigh, Nicky Kehoe and Dessie Ellis and Ógra Shinn Féin representatives Damian Lawlor and Justin Moran picketed outside Leinster House on Wednesday to protest Minister Noel Dempsey's flawed Waste Management Bill, which was being debated inside.
By chance, a human rights NGO was notified of this situation. The NGO contacted legal support and all 13 asylum seekers were eventually admitted to the asylum process.
Some weeks ago nine people, also from West Africa, were stopped at Immigration services at Dublin Airport. Without even a glance at some of their passports, they were shuffled off to a separate room where they were held for four hours. They were then given a letter, and told ``Come, come.'' They were taken to Mountjoy Jail and put in cells in the Basement.
They remained in Mountjoy for that night and the following day. The next morning they were taken back to the airport. It was only when they got to the airport and saw their baggage being taken off towards a flight that finally immigration authorities listened to their insistent claim that they wanted to seek asylum here.
Nobody knows just how many people have been refused entry in this way. Nobody knows how many have been despatched.
There can be little doubt that immigration officers are acting illegally in refusing entry to Ireland to these asylum seekers, and their detention in jail, pending `removal' from the state, also becomes illegal.
The Refugee Act, 1996, stipulates clearly that a person ``who arrives at the frontiers of the state seeking asylum in the State or seeking the protection of the State against persecution or requesting not to be returned or removed to a particular country or otherwise indicating an unwillingness to leave the state for fear of persecution'' may apply for refugee status.
Furthermore, the Act goes on state that ``The immigration officer concerned shall inform such a person, where possible in a language he or she understands, that he or she may apply for a declaration of refugee status'', which means apply for asylum. There can be little doubt that anyone who has reached Dublin Airport passport control off a flight is within the frontiers of Ireland.
The 1999 Immigration Act states: ``A person who at any time is in the State (whether lawfully or unlawfully) and is seeking the status of a refugee in the State may apply to the Minister for a declaration''.
Independent Monitoring ``unnecessary''
In February of this year the European Parliament Directorate General pointed out that ``there is no general admissibility procedures applying to all applications in Ireland.'' There is in fact no general transparent admission procedures in place at all. What goes on behind the closed doors in Passport Control is not seen by anyone, nor monitored by any independent observer, other than immigration officials who are officers under the Department of Justice and Garda Siochana. Skin colour, it appears, is sufficient to bar a person's entry to this country.
In the spring of last year, several NGOs, including the Irish Refugee Council, proposed an independent monitoring and user-friendly reception agency for people coming into this country, which the EU agreed to fund. Minister O'Donoghue, however, found the proposal `unnecessary', and refused to allow the plan to go ahead.
The Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference (ICBC), in an excellent statement last December entitled ``Pre-Emptive Exclusion of Asylum seekers? Disturbing evidence of a New Policy'', considered the striking fall-off in numbers of asylum seekers landing at Rosslare port. Up until 19 November, numbers at the port had averaged around 150-200 per month, and then, the very day that the Refugee Act of 1996 came fully into force, suddenly the numbers fell to zero or thereabouts. This year, only 24 people have applied for asylum at Rosslare, whereas last year the figure was 514 over the first 6 months.
A disturbing question
The reason for this fall off has been well publicised, though clearly remains without remedy. Immigration officers and ferry staff are monitoring passengers at Cherbourg and are refusing them passage to Ireland.
Travesty of Justice
The amazing case last week of Dr Grant Oyeye from Nigeria is just another example of what NGOs concerned with human rights fear: that immigration officials at Dublin Airport are carrying out a racist agenda on behalf of the Department of Justice in discriminating against black people.
Dr Oyeye came as a visitor to this country to attend a course in tropical medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin. He had a valid passport, a visa and some £3,000, with a prior booking at a Dublin guest house.
Unaccountably, he was detained on arrival at Dublin Airport and sent to jail, where he was held for nine days, until his release last Thursday, 21 June.
Order for his release was given by Judge Kelly, with the outrageous stipulations that he leave his passport with the Gardaí during his stay, undertake not to leave the state during the period, pay his legal costs and leave the state two weeks after the end of his course.
To add insult to injury, his release was conditional on withdrawal of his High Court challenge to the legality of his detention.
The immigration official, Breandán Ó Somacháin, stated in affidavit that he didn't believe Dr Oyeye had sufficient funds to support him during his visit. Yet Judge Kelly refused Dr Oyeye's application for the state to pay his legal costs, since the applicant was a qualified doctor with a job in Nigeria.
Would a qualified doctor from white Caucasian origin, visiting from perhaps Canada or the US, have been imprisoned in Mountjoy for nine days? Would a court have dared to release him on condition he give an undertaking not to prosecute the state for illegal detention?
Sinn Féin protests Waste Management Bill
Dublin Sinn Féin representatives Daithí Doolan, Aengus Ó Snodaigh, Nicky Kehoe and Dessie Ellis and Ógra Shinn Féin representatives Damian Lawlor and Justin Moran picketed outside Leinster House on Wednesday to protest Minister Noel Dempsey's flawed Waste Management Bill, which was being debated inside.