A giant postcard will be delivered to the Department of Justice on Friday as a reminder of the Government’s pledge to take in 4,000 refugees fleeing war and violence.
Refugee And Migrant Solidarity Ireland (Ramsi) also want people to send individual postcards to the Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald to coincide with Ireland’s co-chairing of the United Nations Summit on Refugees and Migrants at UN Headquarters in New York on Monday.
Ramsi said the government last year promised to give a home and safety to 4,000 people displaced through war and violence.
The government promised to give priority to the “most vulnerable” who are children, fleeing across Europe without their parents, the group said.
“They have not done this. So far, Ireland has taken in 311 of the 4,000 people it promised to offer refuge to.”
The postcard campaign intends “to remind our leaders of their promise to us” and refocus attention on the plight of separated children.
Ramsi said the Government must take “immediate action and fulfil their promise to respond and ensure safe passage and protection for refugees”.
“We must take a leading role in addressing the crisis,” it said.
Ireland, it said, led the way as “a land of refuge for children” in the past when 1,000 German, French and Austrian refugee children were given homes here in 1946 under the Operation Shamrock campaign.
Safe passage was organised by the Irish Red Cross and children were taken in by Irish foster families.
Ramsi says the postcards can be downloaded from http://tinyurl.com/z5nncga.
It wants supporters to sign them and forward them to the Department of Justice by September 19th.
The organisation has also appealed to people to bring their own postcards to the Department of Justice in Dublin at 6pm on Friday when the giant postcard will be delivered. Supporters can also tweet the Ms Fitzgerald to act using #4000promises.