A chara, - Last weekend's gruesome discovery of the bodies of eight asylum-seekers highlights the inhumanity of a border system which forces human beings to undertake deadly and drastic measures to avail themselves of rights enshrined in the Geneva Convention on Refugees.
The ethos of the Convention, enacted just over 60 years ago, has been subjected to sustained attack over the past decade by the EU's policy, which is aimed at fortifying - in legal and security terms - its borders.
By placing the blame solely on human traffickers, the Taoiseach is attempting to absolve EU policy from any culpability in creating the circumstances which led to the deaths of these people.
Indeed, his line of argument is an old one. It was used in the past to legitimise the East German border regime, for example. In a television address delivered shortly after the erection of the Berlin Wall in August 1961, the GDR leader Walter Ulbricht ingeniously argued that the measure had been essential to put an end to the activities of the "organisers of human trafficking".
Just as Ulbricht and his policies were ultimately responsible for the massive levels of migration from East to West Germany, so too is EU policy responsible for a state of affairs in which people are literally dying to get into Ireland. - Is mise,
Damian Mac Con Uladh, Berlin, Germany.