O'Malley points to risk of rights abuses

Ireland's treatment of refugees should alert people to the risk of human rights abuses occurring in their own country, according to the chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, Mr Des O'Malley.Mr O'Malley said many of the problems with refugees were caused by the non-implementation of the 1996 Refugee Act. It was unacceptable that people who could make a valuable contribution to society had to endure long delays before their applications for asylum were heard.Speaking at the launch of Trocaire's Development Review 1997, he said Ireland should continue to raise its concerns about human rights in countries such as China, Burma, Turkey and East Timor, even when this was unpopular with their governments. Human rights were universal, and couldnot be interpreted differently in different countries.Writing in the review, Ms Adrienne Collins of the Irish Refugee Council said the failure to deal properly with refugees has weakened Ireland's stand on human rights internationally. Ms Collins said the numbers of asylum-seekers and refugees in Ireland were "minuscule" compared to other EU states. Last year, for example, Germany registered 149,000 applications for asylum, and Britain 28,000, compared to 1,179 in Ireland.Ireland is the only EU state which has not ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination. It has no anti-discrimination legislation. "The absence of protection in this area is becoming increasingly noticeable with the increase in publicly expressed antagonism towards refugees.""Instead of blaming asylumseekers for `flooding' into Ireland and `sponging' off our welfare state, it is time to ask why the Department of Justice takes so long processing claims and why asylum-seekers are not allowed to work after a given period of time, as is common in many other states."The review, which includes an opening article by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma as well as articles on EU food dumping, Zambia, Eritrea and SouthEast Asia, is available from Trocaire, tel (01) 288-5385, price £7.50.