Government needs to treat asylum seekers with humanity

The immigration crisis that has been confronting Ireland for years has been particularly remarkable for one thing, an almost complete lack of communication by the State authorities and the Government with regular people in communities where asylum seekers have been accommodated.

Such lack of dialogue has resulted in public protests, the growth of far-right anti-immigrant rhetoric, divisiveness and all sorts of conspiracy theories that are as ridiculous as they are dangerous.

The Government can reasonably be accused of continually failing to liaise adequately, or at all, with communications when asylum seekers were coming to particular areas and now, authorities are deliberately neglecting to talk to local communities when refugees are being moved out, having integrated into society after years of living there.

This is certainly true in Cahersiveen, as highlighted last week in this newspaper.

Up to recently around 160 asylum seekers were accommodated in the town, making up about 20% of the population. Then most of them were simply moved out to other areas and in doing so the Government has sundered solid relationships that had developed, pulled apart friendships and taken children away from schools and sport in which they were thriving and from pals they have made.

That’s the sort of casual inhumanity that now passes for immigration policy under this Government. How cruel is that?

Nobody is arguing for an ‘open door’ scenario when it comes to immigration into Ireland. Further, the cost of accommodating asylum seekers is penal, coming in at €1.2 billion last year.

That kind of money would be transformative if spent in other areas, such as mental healthcare (particularly for young people), for instance.

On top of this, the people of Ireland have been funding accommodation for Ukrainian refugees fleeing Vladimir Putin’s war of conquest on their country. Since that conflict started, well over €5 billion has been spent on such support.

The whole thing, together, is costing a vast amount of money and it is the duty of the Government to mitigate that spending.

That explains why support for Ukrainian refugees is being, justifiably, curtailed.

But any attempt by the Government to cut the cost of both asylum seekers and Ukrainian refugees must take account of the humanity of those concerned. We, as a society, have done the decent thing by the way we have treated asylum seekers and Ukrainians.

We must not allow that decency and goodwill to be insulted by policies that lack sensitivity and are essentially cruel.