Refugees have little to celebrate

For many of the 3,000 asylumseekers spending their first Christmas in Ireland this week, the joy of the holiday season will be tempered with homesickness and considerable uncertainty about their futures.

Hundreds face deportation in the New Year if the Department of Justice acts quickly on foot of a recent Supreme Court judgment that asylum-seekers must make their application in the first EU State in which they land. This would affect any asylum-seeker who passed through another EU State before arriving in Ireland.

However the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, last week raised the possibility that an amnesty could be granted to asylum-seekers who are already here.

Most probable is that the current delay in hearing applications for asylum will drag on, leaving many people in the legal limbo to which they have been assigned for, in some cases, up to four years.

Most asylum-seekers come from eastern Europe, central and north Africa and the Middle East. Perhaps half are Muslims, and they do not celebrate Christmas. Others are Orthodox Christians and would not normally celebrate on December 25th, explained Ms Nadette Foley, director of the Irish Refugee Council.

The council has arranged for some asylum-seekers to spend Christmas with Irish families, but many others have their own networks of friends or have made their own plans to celebrate.

Several hundred people attended the first Christmas party organised by the Association of AsylumSeekers and Refugees in Dublin last Monday evening.

Unlike asylum-seekers, those with refugee status are free to travel outside the State. The founder of the association, Mr Khalid Ibrahim, who became a recognised refugee earlier this year, is planning to pay a long overdue visit to his Iraqi brothers in Britain. For this reason alone, he says, this Christmas will be special.