Amnesty for parents of Irish born children

Minister of Justice Michael McDowell announced this week his decision that, after all, the non-national parents of Irish-born children are to be let re-apply for the right to remain in Ireland permanently.

Only last month, McDowell claimed to a Dáil Committee that this would bring "chaos" to the system. He had argued that an amnesty for what is estimated to be around 17,000 people, which Sinn Féin, along with the Greens, Labour and Fine Gael have supported, would bring "floods" of refugees to the state.

And now, within a month, a complete turnaround.

For months now, thousands of people have been living in a painful state of total uncertainty, awaiting daily the knock at the door, when immigration officials and Gardaí would land in to arrest the parents and hold them incommunicado in conditions of detention in order to deport them from the state on chartered planes.

The recent Chen judgement at Strasbourg, which McDowell repeatedly and mischievously used to justify the referendum in the summer, allowed that a child born in the Six Counties would have the right to remain living in Britain. Given the Good Friday Agreement, the equality provisions and commitment to ending discrimination across all Ireland, it left McDowell in the untenable position that parents of children born in Newry would have different rights to the parents of those children born in Dundalk.

And now, all of a sudden, McDowell claims that he can see the "moral force" of granting residency to a family whose children have been attending school for several years and have long been integrated into their community. Funny he didn't see that last spring, when he introduced the referendum about the need to halt the floods of refugees coming to Ireland.

Countless cases, brought by NGOs, most especially Residents Against Racism over the past year or more, in defence of the parents' rights to remain on humanitarian grounds, have been rejected by the Minister. Now, apparently, he cares about the "moral force" argument.

Balbriggan racism rejected

At the time, it was strongly argued that holding such a referendum encouraged racist talk and attitudes throughout the land. A most appalling example was provided by Balbriggan council last month.

The Balbriggan motion read: "To call on the Minister for Justice, Equality & Law Reform to return all asylum seeking unaccompanied children under the age of 18 years to their country of origin at immigration point." This motion was forwarded on to Carrickmacross Town Council for submission. The motion was taken this week and Sinn Féin's Matt Carthy proposed that Carrickmacross reject it. This was unanimously agreed.

Speaking afterwards, Carthy said that the elected members of Balbriggan Town Council should be ashamed of themselves for presenting such an overtly racist motion.

He said: "I am extremely disappointed that any local authority would have enough racist representatives to secure a majority to back this motion and forward it to other council chambers. The motion shows no compassion for the most vulnerable in our society. Children coming to Ireland seeking asylum need our support and understanding, not to be booted back on a boat or plane.

"Thankfully, the members of Carrickmacross Town Council (made up of 3 Sinn Féin, 3 Fianna Fáil, 2 Fine Gael, and 1 Independent) were united in our rejection of this racist motion and I hope that a similar result will be forthcoming from other local authorities who receive this correspondence from Balbriggan."