Who'd be a licensed haulier? Lenin establishes the first communist state in 1917. The first World War brings a carve-up of the former Austro-Hungarian empire. Attempts to build democracy fail. Fascism and racism rise. The turmoil of the second World War creates a huge communist bloc. The entire bloc crumbles after 45 years, while the other part of the continent luxuriates in new wealth.

A dictator in the name of the proletariat is shot, his corpse ignominiously pictured worldwide. Regional wars break out and more people are killed in five years than in the previous 45. People try to escape, as they do in war, as they do when there is any hope of improving their miserable lot.

The EU, the rich part of Europe, fears it can't quite deliver the goods to all its own people and tries to keep out as many foreigners as possible. The Irish economy is called Europe's shining light and our success is celebrated far and wide, mainly by ourselves. Destination Ireland becomes the word among the reversing Irish diaspora. Irlanda is the word, too, among a lot of people in the broken up parts of the old Austro-Hungarian empire of southern Europe.

And therefore Irish hauliers are to face criminal sanction for not keeping the desperate and the hopeful out of their containers, to keep them from seeking our fair land. The small and medium-sized businesses of licensed hauliers are to act as immigration police and if they fail, they go to jail.

I am sure one could skip the history and explain to the drivers and the hauliers that society requires businesses to be good corporate citizens. That business must play its part in combating evils perpetrated on society by the abuse of business delivery systems. That there is really no difference between a bank being required to enforce anti-money laundering procedures under pain of criminal sanction and a haulier having to enforce anti-stowaway measures. A justifiable cost is imposed on business.

Except that the whole context is wrong. To focus on the actions of hauliers and to further penalise them for not doing what their insurance and business needs would demand anyway is impulsive and unfair. Criminalising employers for employing illegal immigrants falls into the same category of hitting whoever you know you can hurt when you can't hurt who you really want to. It is a diversion from the real issue.

The fact is that the relative wealth of the EU, the economic success of Ireland and our welfare policies have made Ireland attractive. We must realise that the creation of the very economy and society we want for ourselves makes others want to be part of it.

We have few short-term choices. We can allow a free-for-all on entry. We can try to hold the fort against all but "genuine refugees". Or we can try to create a managed intake of people who can join in, and help reinforce, our success, some at the bottom of the pyramid, some in the middle, some even at the top.

The Minister for Justice and the Government choose option two. Can they find any other democratic country where holding the line has not ended up in frustration and futility, with the side-effect of increased public racism?

They say it is a big job to process the asylum cases to give genuine refugees a chance. With all due respect to due process, the officials are probably wasting their time, at least with regard to Romania. How will they judge the cases? They could take a look at the US Department of State's briefing on human rights in Romania from January of this year. The US reports about 1997 in Romania: "There were no reports of political or other extra judicial killings." "There were no reports of politically motivated disappearances." "The Constitution prohibits torture and inhuman or degrading punishment or treatment, and these prohibitions were generally respected in practice. Nevertheless, there were credible reports that police continued to beat detainees."i once did too.)

"There were no political detainees in 1997." "Exile was not used as a means of punishment."

And finally, the coup de grace, "There were no reports of political prisoners."

So, if the US is to be believed, the chances of finding a "genuine refugee" among the hapless Romanians in the news these days is nil.

There is no problem about refugees. The problem is how to manage the inexorable pressure from others to enter our rich economy. We must manage, rather than try to withstand, this labour market force. Criminalising licensed hauliers is irrelevant to that, the real challenge.

Oliver O'Connor is an investment funds specialist.