RITE AND REASON:Is the proposal to allow deportation - without notice - of anyone found to be illegally in Ireland in breach of just and fair procedures? asks Horace McKinley.
IT MAY not always be understood why the question of movement of people, not least immigrants, refugees, economic migrants or asylum-seekers, is of special concern to the churches.
The churches' faith story is shaped and inspired by the Old and New Testament scriptures, where continuous movement of individuals or peoples (still such a pronounced feature in our now globalised world) is a recurring biblical reality.
Sometimes the factors causing such movement are overtly political or economic. Sometimes, too, movement results from the call of God (it would be difficult to know how this might ever easily be covered by legislation!).
Abraham is famously and divinely called to leave his own country. So, too, is St Paul, "to come over into Macedonia", thereby enabling Christianity to take root in western Europe.
At other times this movement is decidedly involuntary, as exemplified by the Hebraic captivity in Egypt or later enforced exiles to Assyria and Babylonia. Christ himself (with his parents) as a small child was rendered a refugee in Egypt.
The awesome climax to Christ's teaching in St Matthew's Gospel is the parable of the sheep and the goats - where one particular yardstick by which divine judgment will be made is whether the "stranger" is welcomed or not.
And, according to tradition, we should not forget that our national saint, Patrick, first arrived involuntarily as an immigrant to our shores and later returned voluntarily.
In relation to the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill 2008, the State's obligations to control inward migration and to enact legislation are, of course, fully acknowledged and endorsed. In studying submissions requested from the churches and some of their agencies by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, these submissions nonetheless contain several concerns regarding particular details in the Bill.
One example is section 4/5, i.e. summary deportation. As presently drawn up, the Bill would allow for the deporting without notice of any person found to be unlawfully in the State.
The churches have questioned whether this power is, in fact, in breach of just and fair procedures, and they propose that there should be an approved process enabling people in more "extreme" life situations to be addressed humanely.
Specific legal provision should be allowed for this. Factors for consideration against deportation should include genital mutilation of girls/women, "forced" conversions and "forced" marriages.
Concern has also been expressed by the restriction in the Bill, doubtless due to possible exploitation by "convenience" marriages, on the right to marry, section 123 (2).
The right to marry is a right already enshrined in Article 12 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
There are welcome indications, however, that our legislators are considering revisiting this particular section of the Bill.
The lack of provision in the Bill on the right of family reunification is of particular concern to the churches. Christian teaching (its template being the Holy Family) and our own Constitution accord very high priority to the place of family unity and welfare.
Ours is the only EU state not having national rules on family reunification in its primary legislation.
This Bill would more fully reflect the family-centred tradition of our people if it contained a particular entitlement for legal residents and Irish citizens to be able to be joined by close family, and not least children of minor age.
The churches have expressed the hope that, as this Bill becomes law, there should be clearly built into its outworking "openness, transparency and accountability".
The churches are therefore concerned at this stage that the Bill contains an excessive dependency on very significant (and as yet undefined) "secondary" legislation and other important procedural regulations.
Some of this, too, would apparently be left solely to the discretion of the minister of the day and would not have to pass through the normal scrutiny of the Oireachtas.
The challenges and opportunities of the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill are too far-reaching not to be held to full and continuous public account and to an ever open and closely-scrutinised "system".
As the submission from the Churches Asylum Network states: "If the stranger is to be received with the hospitality for which we in this country wish to be recognised, then our migration and asylum policies must be just, clear, comprehensive, humane and effective."
Canon Horace McKinley is chairman of the Church of Ireland Dublin and Glendalough Diocesan (Discovery) Committee for the International Community