Bhamjee claims 20% political refugees genuine

One of the country's best-known immigrants claimed yesterday that only 20 per cent of people seeking asylum in Ireland are genuine political refugees.

South-African born Dr Moosajee Bhamjee said yesterday 80 per cent of asylum-seekers are economic migrants, with the remainder being genuine refugees.

According to the latest Department of Justice figures for 2002, of the 14,626 applications processed last year, only 893 were granted at the first stage - 6 per cent of the total. Of the 5,551 appeals against decisions to refuse asylum processed last year, 19 per cent (1,067) were successful.

The consultant psychiatrist claimed he takes "with a pinch of salt" many of the stories he hears from asylum-seekers.

"Having met genuine political refugees over the years, I can't believe all of the stories I hear.

"The asylum-seekers have got this impression that going to the west means big money and many are disappointed. Suddenly they are treated as nothing and put into camps and share a room with people they don't know.

"A lot of the asylum-seekers coming to Co Clare are from a middle-class background and most of them are educated but they are feeling a cultural deficit and also experience feelings of displacement and of being let-down." Dr Bhamjee arrived in Ireland in the late 1960s to study medicine in Dublin and came to national prominence in 1992 when he took a seat for Labour in the 1992 general election in the Clare constituency.

"Racism is beginning to increase towards all non-nationals, not just asylum-seekers, because the local community assumes that anyone with dark skin is an asylum-seeker now," said Dr Bhamjee.

"It is worrying. There is a lack of knowledge from Irish people as to the rights asylum-seekers have, believing for instance that asylum-seekers receive the best houses. That is not true, there are no substantial facts to go with it, but this is how racism begins to fester in the general population."