Sir, - Molly O'Duffy (October 20th) claims that 1998 has been a bad year in Ireland for deportations. She is absolutely right. To the end of September the total number of failed asylum seekers deported was eight. This is in a context where the public is repeatedly told that almost 90 per cent of asylum seekers will fail the process. The gullible public takes this to mean that 90 per cent will be made to leave. Instead, we have a shuffling of paper but no shuffling of people. As elsewhere in Europe, almost all asylum seekers remain on.
An asylum process is granted on the understanding that those who fail will leave. Since this is patently inoperable, that asylum process cannot continue to be allowed. For that reason our organisation called on the Government at our agm last month to invoke Article 44 of the Geneva Convention, the opt-out clause to which all signatory states are entitled. If the process worked in practice as it is supposed to do in theory we would not have needed to.
Let those who watch the anti-deportation rally in Dublin next Friday remember the real injustice of deportations - the injustice to Irish people when they don't happen. - Yours, etc., Aine Ni Chonaill,
PRO,
Immigration Control Platform,
Dublin 2.