Sir, – The Government is being disingenuous when it blames the UK decision to send certain asylum seekers to Rwanda for the increase in persons coming here to claim asylum and international protection.
Far more plausible reasons for this increase are the ending of Covid travel restrictions, and the recent decision of our own Government to extend what amounts to a general amnesty to asylum seekers who have been here for more than two years.
The latter decision was forced on the Government to clear the large backlog of unfinalised asylum applications which had built up due to its continuing failure to provide the necessary legal aid, adjudication, and judicial resources to finalise these applications in a timely manner.
This amnesty was only the latest in a pattern of partial amnesties which have become a feature of our overburdened asylum processing system and which send out a clear message to traffickers and potential asylum abusers that if you manage to get into Ireland, irrespective of the merit of your asylum claim, an amnesty will come along in due course and you will get to stay.
What should be of even greater concern is that this under-resourcing is a grave injustice to all those with valid claims to asylum or protection who are often trapped for years awaiting finalisation of their claims.
There is still no sign of the Government providing the resources to the asylum adjudication system necessary to achieve the time-scales for finalising asylum claims posited by the report of the Advisory Group on Direct Provision (and on which the costings and other recommendations of the report hinge).
A properly resourced system capable of delivering fair and speedy final decisions would be a far more effective deterrent to asylum abuse than would suspending a provision that mainly allows refugees maintain family connections in what must be a time of trauma for many of them. – Yours, etc,
PETER MURRAY,
Carrigaline,
Co Cork.