CLAIMS BY a senior civil servant that a “legal racket” among immigration lawyers and misinformation are undermining the asylum system have been described as “reprehensible” by a backbench Labour TD
The Bar Council and the Irish Refugee Council yesterday also rejected the comments, which were made by Seán Aylward, secretary general of the Department of Justice to the United Nations Committee Against Torture.
At a UN committee hearing in Geneva on Tuesday, Mr Aylward said the asylum system was being undermined by misinformation, propaganda and what amounted to a “legal racket” among immigration lawyers. He said delays in the decision-making process were caused by “ambush-type applications” to the courts by applicants, often at the very last minute.
Labour TD Michael McNamara said it was “reprehensible” for the secretary general of a department to vilify those lawyers seeking to vindicate the rights of their client, particularly when many of them worked on a pro bono or “no foal, no fee” basis.
"This is the type of attitude you might expect to encounter in a developing country rather than a developed country," he told The Irish Times.
Mr McNamara, who is a human rights lawyer who has practised in the asylum area, said there was a need to substantially review the proposed Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill 2010 to create a fairer asylum system.
The Bar Council also rejected the criticism of the profession.
“The Bar Council has no basis for supposing that barristers in asylum cases behave improperly or are part of a racket, although there is no system that can’t be abused,” said Paul O’Higgins SC, chairman of the Bar Council.
He said the Bar Council would very much welcome any information that the department has on any particular barrister behaving in an unethical way.
The Irish Refugee Council criticised the Government’s submission to the UN committee for claiming the low recognition rate of refugees in Ireland is because Ireland does not get the “right sort” of asylum seeker.
Sue Conlan, chief executive of the council, said a culture of disbelief, a lack of proper checks and balances within the system and the absence of a truly independent appeals mechanism were the main reason Ireland had a very low recognition rate.
The number of asylum seekers granted refugee status by the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner has fallen to below 1.5 per cent in 2010 from almost 10 per cent in 2007. This is the lowest rate in the European Union and significantly below the average recognition rate of 27 per cent.
More than a third of asylum seekers living in direct provision centres have been there for more than three years due to lengthy delays in their applications for protection being processed.