McDowell a disgrace, priest tells Afri walkers

An author and former missionary priest who worked in Africa for 35 years described Minister for Justice Michael McDowell as "…

An author and former missionary priest who worked in Africa for 35 years described Minister for Justice Michael McDowell as "a disgrace" at the weekend for his treatment of the large numbers of migrants who are coming here.

Calling on Mr McDowell to adopt "a more generous and charitable policy" towards migrants, Fr Pádaig Ó Máille, a member of St Patrick's Missionary Society, said Ireland had a lot to be grateful for in the way its exiles had been received over the centuries in places such as Britain, the United States and Australia.

Addressing about 200 people at the start of the 15th Afri Famine Walk on the shores of Doo Lough, Co Mayo, Fr Ó Máille described recent statements by the Minister that most migrants and asylum seekers were telling "cock and bull stories" to get into Ireland as "arrogant" and "unfair".

"International law and the decision of our own courts prevent him [ Mr McDowell] from deporting these migrants immediately at our harbours and airports.

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"So he sends his police in the middle of the night to pick up helpless women and break up families and stop children from completing their education.

"He is a disgrace and we are a disgrace to allow him do these things."

Fr Ó Máille, an Irish language civil rights campaigner who worked in Nigeria and Malawi from 1957 to 1992, spoke from a trailer at the start of the Famine Walk which had as its theme: Supporting the Right of Migrant Workers to Organise.

Said El Bouzari of the Migrant Rights Centre in Dublin, a Moroccan who has lived in Ireland for six years, said the reality of life for migrant workers in Ireland was very bleak. The Gama case was only one instance where workers were being exploited, he said.

There were many such cases, he said, instancing the plight of a meat factory worker in the east with a wife and five children who received €200 for working 60-70 hours a week and was not entitled to holidays.