Our treatment of asylum seekers is, to put it mildly, shabby. During the past three years, the administrative systems at the Department of Justice and elsewhere have buckled under pressure from a wave of applicants. And while the Coalition Government attempted to recruit extra staff to process applications and to deal in a humanitarian way with their needs, the situation has deteriorated.
Yesterday, the Labour Party launched a three-part policy designed to facilitate the entry of foreign workers; to deal with backlogs under the existing asylum and refugee system and to provide extensive integration measures. The party's pre-election document is unlikely to become a significant vote winner, but it is indisputably a move in the right direction. Our history as a people, in sending our children around the world to find work and a new life means that we have a special obligation to the dispossessed. Even today, half of the annual inflow of 27,000 workers that contribute to our economic growth and add to our personal wealth are Irish citizens who had gone abroad to work.
There is no disguising the difficulties and challenges posed by the increase in immigration. A survey published yesterday by the employers' organisation, IBEC, along with the European Social Fund and FAS, highlighted language and legal/administrative difficulties, along with housing, schools and cultural matters as key concerns. It found, however, that where non-nationals had been recruited, employers had found the experience positive in 83 per cent of cases. For their part, refugees had regarded racism as a significant negative factor in advance of securing employment. IBEC has pointed out that, under the National Development Plan, about 340,000 immigrants will be required to fill jobs over the next six years.
These developments have taken place against a background of an Anti-Racist Workplace Week, organised by the Equality Authority in association with ICTU, IBEC and the Construction Industry Federation. And they follow an announcement by the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, that a public antiracist awareness programme costing £4.5m over a three-year period will be introduced before Christmas. These are welcome developments that will contribute positively to the situation.
The Labour Party approach represents a radical departure. It echoes proposals made by the Catholic Bishops through the Commission on Justice and Peace earlier this year, but rejected by the Government. A United States "green card" system would allow up to 10,000 of the 13,000 asylum seekers at present in the State to regularise their status and take up work. Having dealt with the backlog of applications in this way in 2001, a streamlined process for dealing with new asylum seekers would be introduced. In the following years, the number of green cards issued would be expanded to 15,000 and would be allocated on the basis of skills, knowledge of English and a willingness to undergo training. It would run parallel to the more exacting work visa system, under which people must show they have a job waiting for them before they are allowed to enter the country. Some 12,000 such visas have been issued so far this year.
The Labour Party proposals are humane and progressive. But they are somewhat fuzzy where detail is concerned. And it may be difficult to integrate them with existing legislation. They have, however, received a broad welcome from groups working with refugees, such as the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, the Irish Refugee Council and the Commission for Justice and Peace. They deserve careful consideration.