Sir, – The efforts of our Naval Service in rescuing stricken migrants and refugees in transit to southern Europe are worthy of praise.
However, we should not comfort ourselves that this is an adequate response to this crisis. In fact, we should recognise that in providing search-and-rescue support without adequately providing for resettlement of refugees and migrants, we are incentivising irregular and high-risk migration.
The only immediate resolution to this crisis is to remove the necessity for migrants and refugees to put their lives in the hands of people-smugglers.
Ireland and her EU neighbours should put aside discussions about quotas and EU law and start responding appropriately to what is a humanitarian catastrophe. That means providing safe and organised resettlement to everyone who needs it until a more permanent solution can be determined and agreed.
It is a damning indictment of our collective humanity that these matters remain open for discussion while dead children are being washed up on European beaches. – Yours, etc,
GARRETH McDAID,
Leitrim.
Sir, – It is to our eternal shame that we, as a nation, turn our backs on the pitiful plight of the refuges desperately fleeing Africa and beyond.
Germany is preparing to accept 800,000 per year – 1 per cent of its population and four times that of last year. The equivalent for us would be 45,000 per year. As a nation we have committed to 600 over the next two years. I find this horrifying. This is slamming the door. Where is our empathy, our great tradition of welcome and generosity? Have we forgotten our past? Look into the eyes of your own son or daughter and imagine the horrors which they would now be enduring but for an accident of birth.
SEAN FITZGERALD,
Donadea, Co Kildare.
Sir, – Having worked in Bosnia after the ending of a genocidal war there, I was conscious of, and frequently reminded of, Ireland’s humanitarian response to refugees resulting from that conflict. What a contrast to our attitude to the current numerically greater tragedies of Syria and north Africa. Millions are fleeing for their lives and we are talking, still talking, of accepting 600 refugees. Our Naval Service performs heroically but our immigration policy is completely inadequate.
Surely we could offer a substantial response, such as housing about 2,000 refugees per county, or a total of 50,000. A programme of integration could be designed by an ad hoc task force and managed by an organisation such as the GAA with its powerful club and county structure in conjunction with local authorities.
Let’s stop worrying about our own relatively minor problems here and take a bold step for the salvation of humanity. We could easily share some of our wellbeing with the less fortunate members of the human race, who go to their death daily before the eyes of the rest of the world. – Yours, etc,
COLUM MacDONNELL,
Glenageary,
Co Dublin.