Sir, – Perspectives offered by Daniel McLaughlin ("Eastern Europe slams doors on refugees from Middle East", August 28th) and Breda O'Brien ("Could Ireland become the fairest little country for migrants?", Opinion & Analysis, August 29th) highlight the plight of the hundreds of thousands of people who are now seeking refuge in Europe.
Daniel McLaughlin notes that eastern European states, despite their "recent experience of conflict, economic hardship and mass emigration", are "doing almost nothing for this new generation of refugees". At the same time, as he has previously acknowledged, many citizens and voluntary groups in Hungary and the Balkans are helping those en route to perceived safety.
While xenophobic governments in eastern Europe are overtly rejecting refugees, western European states have likewise been reluctant to respond humanely to their needs. Unfortunately, Ireland is no exception in this regard.
Breda O’Brien considers the “highly conflicted attitudes to migration” in this country – from public praise for the heroic work of the Naval Service in the Mediterranean to the very restrictive system of “direct provision” for asylum seekers. She argues that, by showing “more generosity”, Ireland could become “the best little country in the world for fairness to those who are forced to flee”.
Accepting refugees is the least that Europe can do to alleviate the suffering of these people. Especially since powerful nations – including EU states – bear much responsibility for the injustices behind the present crisis.
Offering refuge does not end wars, nor does it solve the underlying problems of the world’s troubled regions. However, it can save lives. This was evident in Ireland’s admission of refugees and medical evacuees during the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995 – a programme which involved over 1,000 Bosnians.
In contrast, Ireland’s response to the war in Syria has been minimal, despite four years of carnage and the uprooting of over 11 million people in what the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, has described as “the biggest humanitarian emergency of our era”.
Thus far, fewer than 150 refugees have arrived in this country following the UNHCR’s appeal for international resettlement. Around 100 further places granting temporary Irish residence have been provided through a limited “Syrian Humanitarian Admission Programme” for family members of Syrians already living here. Ireland has pledged to accept more Syrian refugees over the next two years but the pace of delivering on this promise seems very slow.
Similarly, the Government has taken little initiative in what should be an urgent EU effort to support the children, women and men who have made treacherous journeys to Europe from across Africa and Asia in order to escape oppression in their homelands. Ireland’s as yet unfulfilled pledge to admit 600 of these refugees is meagre in comparison to the engagement of fellow EU member states, such as Italy and Greece, which are dealing with the arrival of thousands of people on a daily basis. In addition, the Irish approach towards asylum seekers remains among the harshest in Europe.
Given the scale of the current crisis and Ireland’s considerable experience of conflict and emigration, surely a bit more fáilte is required? Because, for people fleeing trauma, an Irish welcome could literally mean new life. Indeed, writing this letter is directly due to the fact that Ireland accepted Bosnians who were persecuted, displaced and – in the case of one of the correspondents below – seriously injured as a result of war in the 1990s. We hope that this country can show an equivalent level of humanity towards today’s refugees. – Yours, etc,
BRONAGH and MIRZA CATIBUŠIC,
Blackrock,
Co Louth.
Sir, – The UNHCR estimates the figure for global forced displacement to exceed 50 million people. Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald has asserted that Ireland is taking its fair share of them – 600 refugees currently located in Italy and Greece, and 520 currently located outside the EU will be resettled here (“Frances Fitzgerald defends Irish response to migrant crisis”, August 29th). Is this a joke? – Yours, etc,
DOMINIC CARROLL,
Ardfield, Co Cork.
Sir, – We in Ireland should be among the leading voices in providing support and assistance for the migrant tragedy that is unfolding in Europe. We should remember that as a nation we were once the victim of the largest population movement of the 19th century as a consequence of the Great Famine. It is estimated that over a million Irish people emigrated, mostly to the United States and British North America.
As with the present exodus to Europe from north Africa and elsewhere, the fate of those fleeing Ireland in the so-called "coffin ships" was often horrific. For example, of the 257 steerage passengers on The Ceylon, 117 died and 115 had fever on arrival; in nine months nearly 10,000 Irish emigrants to Canada alone had perished from fever. The success of the Irish diaspora is testimony not only to the courage and fortitude of the Irish but also to the hospitality and tolerance (albeit laced with resistance betimes) of welcoming nations.
If, as President Michael D Higgins would have it, the European Union's response to the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean has been a "failure", "grossly inadequate" and "shameful", and, as such, undermines "both the ideal of the European Union and any prospect of that union being an exemplar for international law and its instruments", why can Ireland not step forward and show a leadership that should arise spontaneously in a nation that has experienced the hopelessness and degradation of human dignity that comes simply from having nowhere to go? – Yours, etc,
EOIN O’BRIEN,
Monkstown,
Co Dublin.