Recent asylum-seekers from Romania were singled out for speedy processing and rejection of their claims, it was alleged yesterday. A conference was also told that black visitors to Ireland for business or tourism were stopped at airports while US and Australian visitors were not.
These were among the allegations put to officials from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform at the conference, "The Expanding Nation: Towards a multi-ethnic Ireland", in Trinity College Dublin.
A representative of the Department's equality division, Ms Margaret O'Connor, first outlined the State's anti-discrimination legislation. This was followed by heated questions from delegates. A separate session was then set aside for a spokeswoman from the Department's justice division to deal with the questions.
The spokeswoman, Ms Bernice O'Neill, denied that anyone was being singled out, either for the processing of their asylum applications or at ports and airports. Some of the 144 staff recently recruited by the Department to deal with asylum applications were allocated to dealing with fresh applications, while others were dealing with the backlog.
She said the Department had commissioned a study in University College Dublin of Irish law on refugees, comparing it with EU law. When this study was complete, the Refugee Act of 1996 would be reviewed.
One person asked what was happening to applications for residency from parents of children born in Ireland, who were entitled to Irish citizenship. The parents were not allowed to work to support their children.
Ms O'Neill said the Department had not been ready for the rush of residency applications any more than it had been for asylum applications. There were about 200.
The questioner said that some asylum-seekers who had children born in Ireland were encouraged to drop their asylum applications and apply for residency. Now they might be refused residency and would face deportation.
Ms O'Neill said she was unaware of anyone having been encouraged to drop an asylum application in those circumstances. Several members of the audience replied, "we were".
One speaker said there was a contradiction between the Department's stated intention to abide by UNHCR norms and its reviewing of the Refugee Act in the light of EU legislation. The UNHCR had expressed its disappointment with the closing of EU borders. She was also asked if refugee organisations and NGOs would be consulted when the Refugee Act was redrafted.
Ms O'Neill said there would be consultation.
Earlier, a member of the Commission for Racial Equality for Northern Ireland, Ms Fee Ching Leong, said the commission was opposing a proposed merger between it and other bodies in Northern Ireland dealing with religious and sex discrimination. "We will be at the bottom of the priorities before we even begin to fight. We were established just over a year ago. We are still struggling to find our feet."
Another commission member, Ms Pauline Leeson, said asylum-seekers in the North were being put in Magilligan Prison where, she alleged, some had been assaulted by other prisoners.