A chara, - I wish to express my shock and shame at the discriminatory and arbitrary behaviour of our immigration authorities as evidenced most recently in the treatment meted out to Dr Oyeye. That a visitor to our country can be thrown into prison merely because some official suspects that he wants to enter the UK beggars belief. When is a visa not a visa? I don't recall being asked to vote in a referendum about extending the powers of the British police to our own supposedly sovereign Department of Justice.
This case is merely one of a litany over the past year or two where wrong decisions by immigration personnel have been overturned in the courts. Who is responsible for the actions of these people and under what, if any, terms of reference do they operate? Are those responsible for previous bad calls still making them?
As a citizen of the country in whose name these decisions are being made and in the total absence of any public expression of shame from their perpetrators, I wish to apologise unreservedly to Dr Oyeye for his scandalous treatment at our hands. - Yours, etc.,
Fintan Duffy, Waterford.