Madam, - The Afghan hunger-strike is not the first expression of disquiet regarding asylum determination procedures in Ireland.
An Irish Refugee Council report in 2000 which examined the initial stage in asylum applications called into question the quality of decision-making at first instance with 86 per cent of decisions being appealed to the Refugee Appeals Tribunal and one in four appeals being upheld.
The Refugee Appeals Tribunal itself has also received serious criticism. The UNHCR's rather smug assurances regarding the fairness of the Irish asylum process contrasts with Mr Justice McMenamin's High Court ruling last year that the lack of transparency in the Refugee Appeals Tribunal procedures "cannot accord with the principles of natural and constitutional justice". Two barristers resigned from the tribunal in protest at the way it was run.
Another concern regarding its decision-making is that the fate of an asylum-seeker is determined by only one member of the tribunal. In Denmark there is a minimum of three members involved (formerly there were seven, then five) who offer the tribunal different perspectives in accordance with their areas of expertise. Surely decision-making by the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, with possibly life or death implications for the asylum-seeker involved, should be the responsibility of highly trained experts with proven proficiency in human rights law, psychology, etc.
If asylum-seekers are unsuccessful at the Refugee Appeals Tribunal stage, they may make an application for humanitarian leave to remain (LTR). However very few such applications are granted. An appeal by both the Church of Ireland and Catholic archbishops of Dublin last Christmas to regularise the situation of those asylum-seekers and undocumented in Ireland who have been left in limbo for years while awaiting the result of their LTR applications has so far been ignored by the Irish Government.
This contrasts with the government's intensive lobbying campaign for the regularisation of the Irish undocumented in the US .
It surely behoves us to respond to the despair of asylum-seekers prepared to risk their lives by ensuring that our asylum process is as genuinely fair, just and humane as our politicians and others have been proclaiming in recent days. - Yours, etc,
VALERIE HUGHES, Cabra, Dublin 7.