Sir, - Again I see tabloid-style headings appearing in your paper referring to the issue of asylum seekers and refugees. References to "Gardai struggling to stem the tide of illegal immigrants" (August 27th, my italics) are misleading. Ireland receives fewer than 1 per cent of all asylum seekers and refugees in the EU. The approach by this Government (and the previous one ) to this issue has been bewildering for a European country, and shows lack of knowledge and tact. It is no comfort to me that I read of gardai relying heavily on accent in deciding whether to allow people through or question them further in Connolly Station (for those arriving by train from Belfast). Nor do I sleep easier knowing that a woman who has lived all her life in Ireland is asked by an immigration officer to show her passport because of her colour.
Actually, these revelations only confirm the provincial and backward, if not outright racist, way of thinking that we have come to expect as the norm from our politicians and civil servants. They are also shows evidence of the lack of training for gardai and immigration officials, showing them to be centuries behind the rest of Europe.
When will we learn? I am not holding my breath, given that Mr O'Donoghue will not be implementing sections of the Refugee Act which refer to the appointment of a refugee applications commissioner, nor when I hear that six Ghanaian and two Pakistani delegates were refused visas by the Department of Justice when trying to attend the international conference on "Culture and Identity: Social work in a changing Europe" at UCD. Europe may be changing but Ireland is still dancing at the crossroads. - Yours, etc., DR MOHAMMED H. ALSADER,
Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin.