Support groups: The hunger strike and threatened suicides by 41 Afghan asylum seekers underline how "genuinely desperate" many in the asylum process feel, groups working with immigrants have said. There are still "widespread problems" with the asylum process, they say.
Peter O'Mahony, director of the Irish Refugee Council, said that while the Afghans' actions were "certainly ill-advised" the authorities would "have to look at their cause and why were they prompted to do something so desperate".
Prof William Schabas, chair of the Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUI Galway, said that while the asylum system here was "not the worst in the world, it still has shortcomings". The actions of the Afghans reflected how "desperate" many felt.
Grainne Landers, of the Tralee Refugee Support Group, who knows 17 of the hunger strikers said they were "petrified and frightened. I think they have just become so caught up in their own fear of being sent back to Afghanistan they felt they had to do something," she said.
