Sir, Many of your readers, in common with other citizens, may not be aware that at the recent EU conference in Dublin, a paragraph was inserted in the new EU draft treaty to ensure that no citizen of an EU member state could in future claim asylum in another EU state.
This is an extraordinary, far reaching, and potentially worrying decision by those who instructed the drafters of the proposed treaty. It is an attempt to get rid of the 1951 Geneva Convention, which guarantees the right of those who seek asylum to make a case for refuge.
I understand that this anti political asylum paragraph was inserted at the behest of the Spanish Government, which is angry at Belgium's offer of refuge to certain Basque nationalists who may be supporters of ETA. Is everything in regard to human rights so splendid in all EU member states that there cannot now be a need for refuge or sanctuary?
Some may feel that Basque nationalists might not receive justice in Spain, that Irish nationalists charged with politically related offences in Britain might not always receive justice, that French citizens of North African origin often receive rough justice in France. Britain was found guilty of conduct amounting to torture in Northern Ireland conditions in Spanish jails are ghastly physical "ill treatment by political police is commonplace in Germany, Italy and France the actions of the notorious Heavy Gang in this state "were exposed by The Irish Times and form a sad blot on the reputation of the Garda Siochana.
One would need to be naive to think there cannot be a need ever for a citizen of one EU state to claim refuge in another EU member state.
That anti asylum seeker clause in the EU draft treaty should not be backed by an Irish Government. Human rights can be denied by all sorts of states, and these states can easily employ persons with forked tongues to mask their crimes.
I speak for myself alone. But I believe there are many others who would not approve of anti refugee clauses in the proposed EU Treaty. There could be some or many citizens of EU member states, now and in the future, with a "well founded fear of persecution on the grounds of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion", in the words of the 195 Geneva Convention. Yours, etc.,
New Park Road, Blackrock, Co Dublin.