Europe's Immigration Crisis Highlights its Rigid Humanitarian Qualities

 by Edel O'Shea

Last week The Guardian highlighted, quite shockingly, Poland’s lack of willingness to help with Europe’s current refugee and migrant crisis. One reason noted for their harsh reluctance to assist with the latest influx of human suffering was a lack of understating surrounding immigrants and the general consensus was a population that simply didn’t want them in their country.

This could suggest a lack of government support or willingness to educate in the areas of equality and solidarity concerning humans in mass crisis and suffering. If a vast majority of the populace feels intolerance or even hatred towards a struggling group of non-nationals surely it’s time for collective rewiring through educational intervention and campaigning on a large scale to combat this anti-human mind-set.   

In May 2004, when Poland joined the EU, Ireland was among only 3 EU countries accepting Polish workers along with the UK and Sweden. It has been noted how beneficial EU membership has been to Poland and Western EU member States are suggesting Poland should give back by assisting with the current crisis.   

So Poland, whether you understand them or not or you feel you are not prepared you must at least make attempts to summon the basics of human nature and open your borders to those in need. This is not just a political issue it’s a spiritually driven ethical one too pertaining to the safeguarding of man in an equal arena of justice. 

Poland is a small example in a long list of offending countries, all of which have turned their backs, to some greater or lesser extent, on their fellow man, and so it would seem that humanity is defined and measured by strict adherences that don’t stretch to meet the needs of all those struggling in the midst of a humanitarian crisis.

The EU is attempting to cope with an unforeseen flow of refugees from the Middle East and Africa and given the encompassing European feeling of failure towards these refugees and migrants this could well be our biggest test in our ability to look after one another on the most basic human level. 

In order to fully equip the crisis with financial and logistical aid we must imagine a world that exists without borders and alliances if we are to complete our missions of kindness and equality for all and in particular those currently in distress whether on the Mediterranean or elsewhere.

One hopes that implementing an aid programme to our newest refugees without exceptions and boundaries is not a cause that exists solely on the peripherals of a utopian society but one that mirrors a common declaration of care, decency and compassion for our fellow man.

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1 Leszcynski, A. (2015). Poles don’t want immigrants. They don’t understand them, don’t like them. (July 2, 2015) Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/02/poles-dont-want-immigrants-they-dont-understand-them-dont-like-them  Retrieved July 6 2015

2 Leszcynski, A. (2015). Poles don’t want immigrants. They don’t understand them, don’t like them. (July 2, 2015) Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/02/poles-dont-want-immigrants-they-dont-understand-them-dont-like-them  Retreived July 6, 2015

3 Sherwood, H. (2014). Ten years on and Poles are glad to call Britain home. (April 26 2014) Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/apr/26/polish-immigration-britain-cities-elections Retrieved July 6 2015.

4 Leszcynski, A. (2015). Poles don’t want immigrants. They don’t understand them, don’t like them. (July 2, 2015) Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/02/poles-dont-want-immigrants-they-dont-understand-them-dont-like-them  Retrieved July 6 2015

5 Irish Independent (2015). Portrait of the Week – Number of refugees coming to Europe soars by 80pc  (July 5 2015). Available at: http://www.independent.ie/world-news/portrait-of-the-week-number-of-refugees-coming-to-europe-soars-by-80pc-31352299.html Retrieved July 6 2015.  

6 Amnesty International (2015) Amnesty’s International “Blueprint for Action” to end refugee and migrant deaths in the Med (April 22 2015). Available at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/04/amnesty-international-s-blueprint-for-action-to-end-refugee-and-migrant-deaths-in-the-med/ Retrieved July 6 2015.

Racist Crime in the EU: Increasing, Under-Reported, Destroying Lives

by Georgina Siklossy, Communication and Press Officer with ENAR

Racist crime recently made its way into the headlines with the start of the landmark trial of elected politicians of Greece’s far-right Golden Dawn party, including the party leader. They are accused of orchestrating a string of attacks against immigrants, leftists and gay people.

This is, however, a rare occurrence. Most racist crime incidents are kept invisible due to gaps in police and criminal justice systems – despite the fact that every year thousands of people are victims of unprovoked, often extremely violent crime, motivated simply because of the real or perceived colour of people’s skin, ethnicity or religion.

This is particularly the case in Ireland, one of the few European countries without any legislation recognising the hate or bias motivation of racist crime and taking it into consideration for the purpose of investigation, prosecution and sentencing.

Black and Asian ethnic minorities, Roma, Jews and Muslims – or those perceived as such, are those most vulnerable to racist crime, according to ENAR’s latest Shadow Report on racist crime in Europe, covering 26 European countries.

A total of 47,210 racist crimes were officially recorded in 2013 in the 26 countries covered in the report, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. Most EU Member States do not properly record and report racially motivated crimes. In some countries there is no official or systematic data collection of racially motivated crimes; and in others, including, Ireland, information about the racial, ethnic or religious background of the victims is not disaggregated.

In addition, because they feel ashamed, do not trust the police, or think their testimony will not change anything, many victims often do not come forward to report racist crimes. It does not help that they are also often treated with suspicion by police and emergency workers. Another issue, highlighted in Ireland, is the fact that asylum seekers, migrants and refugees are particularly reluctant to report crimes for fear of deportation or unfair treatment because of their migration status.

The investigation and prosecution of racist crimes is also problematic. Ireland stands out in this respect as the Irish criminal code currently does not have a provision to deal with racist crime. This results in incidents not being recorded, investigated or prosecuted properly. It is at the discretion of judges to consider racist motive as a factor when determining a sentence in a case.

Under-qualification of racist crimes – i.e. treating a crime motivated by hate as a less severe crime or as a crime committed without a bias motive – takes place throughout the justice system, from police reporting to court judgements. In Ireland for instance, a man believed to have links with the small neo-Nazi Democratic Right Movement was found guilty of assault by Mullingar District Court but in spite of having shouted “Paki” at his victim, the judge said that “this does not make him a racist”.

Racist crime is one of the worst implications of racism, a threat to people’s lives, safety, health and property on the sole basis of their real or perceived race, ethnic origin or religion, and it should not go unpunished. Racist crimes are message crimes, which have detrimental consequences beyond the victims: their whole community is threatened as potential next victims, and possible escalation can put liberal and democratic societies at risk. Ireland, as all other EU Member States, must step up efforts in this area. It should ensure that existing EU legislation on combating racist crime – although imperfect – is properly implemented. Beyond this, it should strengthen the legal framework so that it recognises and clearly defines racially motivated crimes, provides for real obligations to investigate the racist motivation, and punishes these crimes more severely. We also need better training for the police and all law enforcement and criminal justice staff on racist crime, as well as adequate support offered to victims of racist crimes. Real political will is urgently needed to ensure better reporting, recording and sanctioning of racist crimes.

Not the Elephant in the Room Anymore: Direct Provision System and Deportations

by Memet Uludag
 
Do you remember the story of Somali asylum seeker Mohamed Sleyum Ali? Irish Times reported it: In March 2014 he was deported from Ireland, attacked and left to die within hours of his arrival in Tanzania…
 
One day he was in Dublin, soon after he was fighting for his life.
 
What do you think of this story?
 
Suspicious?
 
Horrific?
 
Sad? 
 
Unbelievable?
 
Whatever you call this story, it was definitely a preventable one.
In 2014, a young person didn’t need to die because of his immigration status or because of his nationality or the asylum regime in Ireland.
 
And if a person’s life (not just his/her standard wellbeing or basic safety, but his/her life) depends on immigration laws, the person’s nationality or immigration status then there is something else in this story: Institutional racism.
 
 
DEPORTATIONS
Whatever technical debates, some in the state bureaucracy and in the business of ‘immigration’ may hold on deportations, there is a lot more to it than just the cold jargon of legal technicalities and a state-centric view of the deportation system.
 
Deportation, the enforced removal of failed asylum seekers, is a “last resort”, according to the Department of Justice. It says that “more than 22,500 orders have been made since 1999, but just over 4,700 have been enforced”.
 
This seems like a positive situation where, looking at the numbers, four in 5 deportation orders were not carried out. But that’s not the full story at all. If numbers matter, one has to look at the wider picture and at great many sets of numbers before applauding the single and misleading deportation statistics above.
 
The whole end-to-end journey of seeking asylum, applying for refugee status, the process of dealing with refugee applications, the outcome, options for applicants based on the outcome, appeals and deportations are not just extremely complicated (as far as the humanitarian process  of seeking asylum is concerned) but also not transparent and not democratic.
 
There are many genuine personal, legal and logistical reasons to why not all of the 22,500 deportations orders were not processed, but the goodwill of the state doesn’t rank high in this list of reasons. Furthermore 4,700 deportations are not a small number to ignore and if you include the ‘Dublin II Regulation’ numbers (The objective of this Regulation is to identify the EU member state responsible for examining an asylum application and send the applicants to that member state if he/she entered EU via that member state before arriving to the country of asylum application) the ‘deportation’ numbers would be much higher. EU has also signed Readmission Agreements with Euro-peripheral countries, such as Turkey, to deport asylum seekers who arrive to EU from these agreement counties.
 
But the devil is not just in the numerical and secretive process of deportations. One has to appreciate the asylum-refugee application system as a whole to understand its truly inhumane and racist nature.
One also has to understand what happens to people who are deported back to their countries into to the hands of despotic murderous regimes. For many asylum seekers this means life or death.
 
 
ASYLUM-REFUGEE REGIME IN IRELAND: ALL ROADS LEAD TO DIRECT PROVISION SYSTEM
 
We all know too well the conditions in the Direct Provision Centres in Ireland and the inhumanity of the Direct Provision System (DPS) as whole. But the situation in Ireland is not limited to the horrors of the DPS. While the DPS is simply a holding/staging system for asylum seekers with the state having full powers over the lives of people, the process leading to DPS is even scarier.
 
According to the 2013 report published by Eurostat, the official European Union statistics agency, “Ireland comes last when it comes to granting refugee status to asylum seekers, below even Malta which has a population of just over 500,000”.
 
Some media reactions to the findings of this report were as follows:
 

Irish welcome doesn’t apply to asylum seekers or refugees, (Irish Central)

 

Cead mile failte – but not if you’re fleeing for your life (Irish Independent)

 

Ireland rejects more asylum seekers than most EU countries (journal.ie)

 

According to EUROSTAT in 2013 the EU average for granting refugee status was 25.2 per cent while Ireland scored a miserable low of 8 per cent for the first instance decisions. 
 
Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner (ORAC) is the state agency dealing with the refugee applications. Its role is “to investigate applications from persons seeking a declaration for refugee status and to issue appropriate recommendations to the Minister for Justice and Equality”
Surprisingly, ORAC has website has very detailed statistical details in their annual reports. It is evident from ORAC data that Ireland is indeed a mean host country when it comes to granting refugee status to asylum seekers.
 
A summary based on ORAC data shows us a bleak picture over the past 12 years and explains why the DPS has become such a critical entity in the wider asylum-refugee regime in Ireland.

With this absolutely huge rejection rate, many asylum seekers are left with no choice but to appeal the decision of ORAC. Appeals are processed by Refugee Appeals Tribunal and this process is not a very friendly one either.


IRELAND DOESN’T BELIEVE YOU!

A report published by the Irish Refugee Council (Difficult to believe: the assessment of asylum claims in Ireland October 17, 2012) has found damming facts about the refugee process and procedures in Ireland and is calling for an urgent review of the refugee application process.

The report examines the asylum process in Ireland with a systematic review of documents which form the basis of what is known as the `Refugee Status Determination' procedure in Ireland, in order to get a better understanding of why the majority of applications for refugee status in this country are refused. The UK acceptance rate is four times that of the average in Ireland. The evidence obtained in this study suggests that the process itself is responsible and, particularly where the Tribunal (RAC) is concerned, there are reasons to believe that there is a ‘culture of disbelief’ that informs the approach that some Tribunal Members take.

Sue Conlan, the CEO of the Irish Refugee Council said, “What disturbs me about our findings is the fact that many people who appear to have legitimate claims appear not to be receiving a fair examination of their claim and are as a result being denied protection [...]”.

Prof Rosemary Byrne, Director of the Centre for Post Conflict Justice, Trinity College Dublin said: “There is cause for grave concern about Ireland’s protection record for refugees. This research provides a critical insight into very straightforward and cost effective ways the asylum system can, and should be, strengthened to ensure that those coming to Ireland with a well-founded fear of persecution in their country of origin can be guaranteed a fair assessment of their claims”.


THE IRISH ASYLUM-REFUGEE REGIME CAN BE SUMMARISED AS

Ireland is not receiving a huge percentage of the European asylum seekers. This country is not sinking under the weight of asylum seekers!

The percentage of asylum seekers who are granted refugee statuses is extremely low, (The 2002-2014 average is just 6 per cent).

The very high percentage of rejections forces the asylum seekers into long/complex appeal process.

Many appeals are rejected by Refugee Appeals Tribunal due to an institutionally dismissive culture in the state.

The appeals process is not transparent.

As part of this high percentage rejection application and appeal regime Direct Provision System is used as a staging area where asylum seekers have no real control of their lives and their own future.
Direct Provision Systems functions as a locking mechanism for asylum seekers and it feeds the deportation regime. Asylum seekers live in constant fear of deportation.

The overall process of asylum-refugee system in Ireland is inhumane and state-centric rather than focusing on protecting vulnerable people.


WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE?

The Direct Provision System is beyond repair and has hurt enough people. It must be ended.
All Asylum seekers in Direct Provision System should be granted permanent leave and residency.
All Asylum seekers should be given the right to work and education, like all other citizens.
Ireland should declare an end to deportations and process all pending asylum applications and grant asylum seekers permanent residency.

The overall refugee application process must be changed completely and a humanitarian, open, transparent and care-oriented system should be put in place.

Migrants fleeing war zones, disasters, despotic regimes should have free-safe-legal passage into Europe and easy ways to apply for asylum.Ireland has the capacity, capability and the means to look after the suffering people. It must also use all platforms in the EU to change the current border control policies.

End the Readmission agreement.
EU to significantly assist Syrian refugees and accept greater number of Syrian refugees rather than shutting the borders and letting migrants die at sea.


You can find more of Memet's writing on http://minordetailsnews.net/ and on twitter @Memzers https://twitter.com/Memzers