The toll taken by unemployment on the lives of individuals and families has been well documented. A higher risk of depression and of family discord has been reported by researchers. Put simply, if people cannot get work, they and their families suffer. This should be borne in mind when considering the debate on whether asylum-seekers should be allowed to work.
A decision to deny them permission to work leaves them open to the risk of depression and other serious difficulties which have been associated with unemployment. It is a cruel imposition on people who have already suffered harshly at the hands of forces outside their control.
The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ms Liz O'Donnell TD, recognised this when she supported the idea of allowing asylum-seekers to work where their applications took more than six months to process. In rejecting her views, the Minister for Justice, Mr John O'Donoghue, argued that a right to work would simply attract more refugees to the country. Yet the six-month delay stipulated by Ms O'Donnell would go a long way towards preventing any inflow.
Most asylum-seekers have been forced to leave their own countries against their will for their own protection. Those who manage to make their way here already have enough to contend with - the loss of their home, racism, a different language and coping with the welfare system. Yet we force them to remain idle and contemplating their loss. In so doing, in a sense, we make ourselves the allies of those who have driven them out. And, while denying them the right to work and pay taxes, complaints are raised in some quarters about how much they are costing the welfare system.
In a letter to this newspaper, Niall Andrews MEP stated that Ireland had the toughest anti-immigration laws in Europe. Yet the numbers of people seeking asylum is low compared with the number of Irish people who emigrated to other countries this century. Critics here condemn the existence of a few thousand refugees when, as Mr Andrews pointed out, "we lobbied the United States in the 1980s to legalise thousands of illegal Irish immigrants living and working in that country."
Our processing of applications for asylum continues to be slow - something which the previous government can share the blame for. In the light of the failure to process these applications promptly, our refusal to allow asylum-seekers to work is perverse; especially so when employment vacancies are widespread. While Ms O'Donnell's support for a right to work was rejected by Mr O'Donoghue, the fact that she made her support public in the first place offers hope that there may be some move in Government circles to reverse this policy. As matters stand, we cannot take pride in our attitude to asylum-seekers, the most recent victims of a cruel and bloody century.