Sir, - To the uninformed reader, Nuala Haughey's report in your edition of February 22nd that there has been a speeding-up of the processing of asylum applications must seem like good news: 6,493 initial applications and 3,086 appeals processed last year; 400 or so staff working in the area.
In actual fact this is a paper-shuffling exercise. That is, of necessity, what the asylum-process is in all countries. It is intended to be a person-shuffling exercise; those who pass stay, those who fail are deported. In actual fact, virtually no one leaves. Of the thousands of asylum-seekers who failed the process last year only 160 were deported.
The golden rule is once they set foot on your territory they are going nowhere. The asylum system, therefore, amounts to a de facto open-borders policy. Jack Straw's recent suggestion that applications must be made from outside is the only way forward and the sooner this is generally recognised the better. - Yours, etc.,
Aine Ni Chonaill, PRO, Immigration Control Platform, PO Box 6469, Dublin 2.