Sir, - A little more compassion and less vitriol is essential from all sectors of our society, a society which has benefitted immensely over the past 150 years from the generosity of spirit and kindness of other nations in accepting into their countries our relatives and friends and offering them the opportunity for happiness and prosperity.
It is ironic that as a country we lobbied the United States in the 1980s to legalise thousands of illegal Irish emigrants living and working in that country, yet we are still taking an inhumane approach to solving the social and economic issues that come with asylum-seeker applications on our own soil.
In 1993 there were only 91 applications from asylum seekers before the Department of Justice for consideration. This figure rose to 3,883 last year.
The fundamental human right that must and should be afforded all prospective and existing applicants for asylum is a speedy processing of their applications for residence or naturalisation. While the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Ireland, Ms Hope Hanlan, recently welcomed the increased additional staff which has been allocated to deal with this problem, still too few applications have been processed. Only 513 applications were processed in 1997, according to official statistics issued by the Department of Justice. Applications should be processed in a matter of months, not years.
There is a strong argument for introducing an amnesty to deal with all applications to date except for those asylum seekers who have been guilty of criminal offences in the past. We could then start with a structured system to deal with those seeking asylum.
It should be compulsory for all asylum seekers to register on arrival. In Greece, there are 500,000 refugees alone, all of whom receive a white card on arrival, for a period of 12 months. After the 12-month period, they can receive a green card which entitles them to stay in the country for a further five years, on condition that they have no criminal record and have not been a burden on the state.
There is no doubt in my mind that Ireland has the toughest anti-immigration laws in Europe. Germany dealt with 130,000 applications for refugee status alone in 1996. The present procedures cannot continue indefinitely and need to be reformed so as to guarantee that basic civil and human rights are protected. - Yours, etc., Niall Andrews MEP,
Molesworth Street, Dublin 2.