Ireland has one of the fairest systems in Europe for dealing with asylum-seekers. So says the outgoing representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Dublin.
Pia Prutz Phiri, a Dane who has run the UNHCR operation in Ireland for the past five years, said that Ireland was now a model for new members of the EU who are currently experiencing a rise in asylum applications.
However, she also called on the Government to give asylum-seekers the right to work after six months, suggested an increase in the number of refugees who can resettle here and expressed concern about aspects of the appeal system for asylum applicants.
"The thing Ireland did well was to invest in this area by beefing up institutions, providing resources and putting together think-tanks. All of this is commendable. We now have a system which, in many respects, is one of the best in Europe."
The access granted to UNHCR by Government departments and agencies was "unique" in Europe, she told The Irish Times in an interview.
Ms Prutz Phiri, who is moving to a new assignment in Bangladesh, said that critics of the Government's asylum policy needed to keep a "perspective" on their approach.
"You have to remember that you don't have systematic detention of asylum-seekers, as elsewhere, that refugees here can become naturalised citizens quickly, and that they can get an interview quickly."
Deportations were a "natural end" to the asylum system for unsuccessful applicants: "We don't have a problem with deportations provided they take place in safety and with dignity." The system of asylum appeals could be "refined", she said. UNHCR has called on the Department of Justice to employ full-time human rights lawyers to hear asylum appeals instead of the current part-time system, but its proposals have not been accepted.
She also called on the Government to embrace a broader definition of who qualifies as a refugee. At present, people fleeing civil war in their home countries may not be recognised under the legal definition of a refugee, formulated in 1951, although they may be given humanitarian leave to remain here.
Ms Prutz Phiri warned of a backlash if recognised refugees were not integrated successfully into society. "Too little work had been done to integrate recognised refugees into Irish society.
While welcoming the recent announcement of €5 million in funding for this purpose, she said that the issue had been "left on the back-burner" while the system for processing applications was being developed. "If we don't have good refugee integration, we won't have the protection we need, and the public backlash could be significant."
Asked her opinion of Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, she said he had tackled some of the problems in a "tough portfolio".
Although there had been examples of xenophobia and racism, overall the tone of the debate on asylum in Ireland had been much better than elsewhere in Europe: "Ireland has been pleasantly free of the rhetoric seen elsewhere and the media has behaved better. However, this is no room for complacency."
She emphasised the importance of political consensus and singled out for praise the agreement by the political parties before the last election not to play the "race card" during the campaign.
Last year, 200 refugees were allowed to come here to resettle under an agreed programme, up from 40 five years ago. Ms Prutz Phiri says further increases in the quota would be welcome.
She also praised the "huge increase" in Ireland's financial support for UNHCR generally - up from about $5 million in the late 1990s to $14 million last year.
Ms Prutz Phiri said Ireland struck her as "very mono-cultural" when she first arrived. Her daughter, whose father is African, had experienced some "ignorance", but overall their experience had been very positive.
"Last week, we got lost in Dublin one day and looked about us at the changes on the street. I thought: 'What a change, what a wonderful change'."
