Sir, - I want to applaud the letter from Mary Banotti MEP and the article by Fintan O'Toole on refugees (May 30th), The recent coverage of this subject in our media has been nothing short of disgraceful, with misinformation, racism, and fear-mongering allowed to predominate.
The reality is that we have a maximum of 2,500 people at present seeking asylum in this country. Compare this figure with 2.5 million refugees in Iran, 1 million refugees in Tanzania, hundreds of thousands in Hungary, Austria, Sweden, and Germany. The people in the press and on radio chat-shows who refer to "floods" and "crisis proportions" should cop themselves on, and so should any aspiring members of the next Dail who parrot the same racist nonsense.
The only crisis in our system is that the 1996 Refugee Act is still awaiting implementation. With sufficient resources committed, it would allow fast and fair determination of asylum status.
Who among us would send any woman, man or child back to a country if we knew they were facing torture or death? There are asylum seekers in this country who have escaped horrific situations at home, who have committed no crime, and who have not seen their families in years and may never see them again: they are human beings, trying to put their lives back together, and who want to contribute to this society.
Racism is easily fuelled and notoriously difficult to extinguish once it catches fire. We are a wealthy country, going through an economic boom. In terms of our international responsibilities, we take in a pitifully small number of asylum seekers. Surely the least we can do is offer these people a fair hearing and fair treatment. - Yours, etc.,
Amnesty International (Ireland)
48 Fleet Street,
Dublin 2