BY ROISIN DE ROSA ([email protected])

A large rally against the deportation of asylum seekers took place outside of the Department of Justice last Saturday, 16 June, followed by a march through the crowded streets of Dublin to a further rally at the GPO.

The march was loud, angry, confident. It was supported by the many anti-racist groups in the country, with strong contingents from trade unions including SIPTU, Mandate and the Teachers Union of Ireland. ``Deportations have to stop. They are a nasty, dirty business,'' said Colm Ryder of Comhlámh. ``Many have died in deportations. They are a secret business, which happens in the night. People are taken away suddenly from their friends, their communities, their lives forcibly removed, often to be sent to their death. Where they have struggled in this country, they have been charged with assault and dragged through the courts. It is unjust, unfair, and an abuse of their rights as human beings.''

The rally, organised by the SWM, marks the beginning of a campaign to reverse the Department of Justice's racist policy of deporting those who have fled persecution at home to seek sanctuary in Ireland and are denied asylum, even though the government is actively seeking 280,000 workers from outside the EU bloc to enable the National Plan target for growth to be met.

``Where is the logic or the humanity? So many skilled people. Why can't they be welcomed. Why can't this government see reason? We call for an immediate amnesty for all asylum seekers in this country,'' Gabriel Okenla of the Pan African Association said.

Seamus Dooley from the NUJ told the rally how John O'Donoghue had promised to repeal Section 19 of the Refugee Act, which makes it an offence to publish the name and personal details of an asylum seeker without first obtaining permission from the Minister. ``It would take a one-line amendment to delete this section of the Act, which amounts to blatant censorship of all the media, and discriminatory treatment of asylum seekers. But still he hasn't amended the act, and there is no prospect that he will. We want nothing more than equality. Is that too much to ask?''

Willie Hamilton pledged Mandate's full support to the campaign to stop the persecution of one of their members, Este, and her daughter Tamie, who have been served deportation orders despite the serious threat to her life if returned to Nigeria. He called on the ICTU to issue a joint statement with Mandate calling for Este to be given refugee status.

Sinn Féin's Daithí Doolan spoke against the government's policy of excluding asylum seekers by refusing them leave to land in this country, shipping them into jail overnight and removing them from the state in the following days. ``The Dublin government here is operating outside of the law and outside of the Geneva Convention. These boot-boy tactics to exclude those who have the right to apply for asylum must be stopped. The Minister himself is undermining the rule of law.''

Comhlámh Calls for End to Direct Provision

In a new report released for World Refugee Day on Wednesday 20 June, Comhlámh is calling for an end to the Direct Provision system which provides asylum seekers with £15 per week, accommodation and food, while awaiting refugee status.

The report is based on interviews with asylum seekers across the state and research carried out with voluntary asylum seeker support groups active around the country. It sets out first hand the sense of loneliness, isolation, and utter dejection being experienced by asylum seekers who cannot work, undergo training, or cook for themselves, and have little access to recreational facilities, all of which are contributing to increasing poverty and social exclusion.

``The system is unfair, discriminatory, and forces people to live in an impoverished `limbo' for months and even years while awaiting a decision on their applications'', said Deirdre Lewis, one of the authors of the book.

``While people have been dispersed to regional centres to live on direct provision, the support services are largely Dublin-based, resulting in local community and voluntary groups having to pick up the pieces. Direct Provision has failed as a response to the needs of asylum seekers and it is time to get rid of it.''

The rights to seek asylum and to work are fundamental, and are recognised internationally. With this in mind Comhlámh is calling for equity between asylum seekers and Irish people on social welfare, for the right to work for asylum seekers here for more than six months, and for training entitlements for all asylum seekers.

``It is fitting that the report should be launched today, the first International Refugee Day. The theme of the day is respect for refugees, and that is all we are looking for'', said Mercy Peters, a journalist who is herself a refugee, and co-author of the report.

The report was launched formally at a celebration of International Refugee Day in the Irish Vietnamese Centre, in Dublin city's Hardwicke Street.