Sir, - The recent furore over asylum-seekers has finally prompted me to put pen to paper. As a recently-returned emigrant I am all too familiar with the pressures and stresses associated with leaving this land to seek a better life on foreign shores.
I too was an economic migrant. But before I was granted a visa to the US I went through a six-month waiting period where my background was checked and I was fingerprinted, the state of my physical health was determined through blood-testing and X-Ray (at my own expense), and the viability of my worth to the US economy was valued. None of this currently takes place in Ireland.
I am all for a multi-ethnic society and have lived in one for the last 10 years but let's have some rules and regulations. Clearly the government needs to set up a quota system to allow qualified workers and genuine asylum-seekers into this country. Perhaps we need better immigration control and could station immigration officers at the bigger ports and airports that have access to our shores, as the US has done here in recent years. Costs would be offset by not having to house unqualified refugees for an undetermined amount of time. We should use fingerprinting, as it allows quicker identification and background checks can be expedited, as happens in the US. Those against fingerprinting are either too naive or have something to hide.
The Minister has an uphill struggle but I believe the process must be right before the problem can be solved. - Yours, etc.,
Nollag M. Ryan, South Circular Road, Dublin.