Madam, - "Ireland's selective ban on athletes defies belief". This is the headline above yesterday's editorial in the South China Morning Post, the main English-language daily in Hong Kong. Having lived for 13 years in Hong Kong, I never expected to see such stinging criticism of my country in the daily newspaper.
I quote: "Flying in the face of medical opinion, Irish Health Minister Micheál Martin has decided to effectively ban disadvantaged members of the global community from an event which for many would have marked the high point of their lives. The decision has shattered the hopes and dreams of competitors who have trained hard for the Games; it has also brought upon the Irish government international condemnation. It is unfair, illogical, and smacks of discrimination."
It is important for Irish people to appreciate that the reaction in Hong Kong, as demonstrated in this editorial, is that the decision is simply wrong, very wrong and is contrary to decisions taken by many other countries to reverse their initial wrong decisions on visitors to mass gatherings from Hong Kong.
The Irish decision goes against the terms and the spirit of the WHO advice on mass gatherings which opens by stating that "over the past few weeks, the enormous amount of information now available on SARS and the increasing awareness of the general public of SARS may have led to irrational behaviour and the exclusion of people coming from an area with recent local transmissions of SARS". It goes on to state "a person who is symptom-free and has not been in close contact with a suspected SARS patient may freely be welcomed without any other measures".
The Hong Kong athletes would have met these criteria. On May 16th, the Hong Kong Special Olympics delegation offered to place the squad in quarantine for two weeks, under medical supervision, before their departure for Ireland. This offer was rejected by the Irish SARS Expert Group. In fact, the group at first asked for the athletes to be monitored by an "Irish-trained" doctor. This bewildering request was granted and an Irish trained doctor agreed to stay with the group in self-imposed quarantine. Many other Irish-trained doctors have offered their assistance and to travel with the team.
Then, at the eleventh hour, the SARS Expert Group rejected these proposals, deciding that it wanted the WHO to validate the quarantine proposals, something which the WHO is not in a position to do
I myself could travel with 21 friends from Hong Kong to attend the Special Olympics with, as I understand it, no restrictions placed on our arrival in Ireland. I am in contact with dozens of people in Hong Kong every day through normal everyday life and there is no logical reason why the 22 Hong Kong athletes and coaches would pose a greater health risk than I would - and they would be an even lower risk after the quarantine period.
Finally, one should consider the overall impact of this decision on the perception of Ireland in this part of the world and on Irish business interests. The Irish Business Forum of Hong Kong seeks to represents the Irish business community here. Our fear is that this decision, if not reversed, will have a long-term impact on how Ireland is perceived by government and business in both Hong Kong and China. This is already a very public issue in Hong Kong and we expect the negative publicity to increase in the coming days and weeks.
Damage has already been done. However, we sincerely hope that this decision can be reversed in a gesture of good will, demonstrating the same good will that the Irish government so successfully developed through the visit of the L.E. Niamh to Hong Kong in March 2002 and the many official visits to both Hong Kong and China in recent years. - Yours, etc.,
MERVYN JACOB, President, Irish Business Forum of Hong Kong.