All the methods used by other EU countries to stop people from the developing world coming to claim asylum in Europe have failed, the annual conference of the Irish Refugee Council has been told. Mr Barry Stoyle, director of the Refugee Legal Centre in the UK, said it was depressing that European governments put so much effort into "keeping the problem away". Measures such as deportation to safe third countries, so-called "safe zones" for fleeing refugees and carrier liability for air and shipping lines carrying asylum-seekers were designed to restrict access to asylum.
"Yet the most effective deterrent against abuse of the asylum system remains the establishment of a fair and transparent system for determining applications." Once this was in place, there was nothing wrong with deporting someone whose application had failed.
Mr Stoyle's centre provides legal advice to some 10,000 asylum-seekers in the UK each year. It employs 128 staff and receives annual funding of £3.4 million. There is no equivalent legal service for asylum-seekers in the Republic since the Irish Refugee Council closed its legal department last year because of funding difficulties.
According to Mr Stoyle, there were many similarities in the asylum debate in Britain and Ireland. Press coverage tended to stress the negative aspects and seldom explained why asylum-seekers were fleeing for their lives. Government tended to use the words "bogus" and "refugee" almost in the same breath.
In the UK, the refusal rate for asylum applications was about 80 per cent. Decision-making was ideologically driven, and a culture of disbelief had been created. "Instead of a proper decision-making process and inquiry, you have: `You're a liar and I'm going to prove it'."
Mr Stoyle said about 35 per cent of asylum-seekers he dealt with had a legitimate reason to stay in the UK. In Ireland the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, has said he expects 90 per cent of asylum cases to be rejected.
Ms Statia Crickley, chairwoman of the Irish committee of the European Year against Racism, said there had long been a wholesale denial of racism in Ireland.
People had first denied that it existed. Then they claimed that groups like travellers were no different from the rest of the community.
More recently, people had started saying there was racism only because of the presence of immigrants. Although the manifestations of racism had increased recently, the experiences of travellers, Jews and black Irish people showed that it was not a new phenomenon.
