No Racism-No Deportations
Michael Pierse explains the background to last week's anti-racist
rally in Dublin
``Refugees in, Racists out'' was the clear message to Minister for
Justice John O'Donoghue at an anti-racism, anti-deportations
rally of several thousand people last Saturday in Dublin's city
centre. The march, from the Department of Justice to the GPO was
organised by the Anti Racism Campaign, Anti Fascist Action and
the Association of Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Ireland.
The Happy City Samba Band lent a carnival atmosphere to the
march and the general exhuberance was symbolised by the many
colourful banners lining the way.
Other events took place in Galway, Cork, Limerick, Roscrea and
Belfast. 400 people attended the march in Cork and 100 in
Limerick. Pickets were also organised at Irish embassies in
London, Bonn, Paris, Brussels and Stockholm, and at the Irish
Consulate in San Francisco.
Most daily national newspapers ignored this newsworthy collection
of activities - which clearly dwarfed the well covered Gardaí
march for higher pay.
The clearly emerging racism in Irish society has become an issue
of concern. Landu Kulabutulu, the 17 year-old victim of the
latest racist attack, is likely to have been targeted because of
his skin colour and this has highlighted claims that a fascist,
anti-immigrant group is being set up in Dublin. An immigrant from
the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire, Kulabutulu was
kicked and beaten about the head with a bottle in Lower Liffey
Street two weeks ago. He was saved by a French tourist and
brought to the Mater Hospital, where he received 16 stitches to
his face and head. Kulabutulu had fled his homeland following the
murder of his parents and now fears for his safety here.
Already grafitti throughout the country promoting such fascist
slogans as ``white supremacy' and ``niggers out'' accompanied by
Nazi swastikas has left people wondering if we are still the land
of céad míle fáilte.
Also, the emergence of a more conservative and infinitely more
dangerous body of ``immigration control'' supporters under the
guidance of the insular minded Aine Ní Chonaill is a worrying
development. By effectively victimising refugees by arguing that
we should look after our own first, Ní Chonaill and her likes
have succeeded in directing animosity away from the government
and towards those who are among the most vulnerable in our
society. In essence, refugees are being scapegoated for
unemployment, homelessness, housing problems and other problems
faced by Irish society today
The same process of discrimination has been underway against the
Travelling Community, who have often been implicated by
right-wing groups as the instigators of their own difficulties in
society and the spark-plugs for anti traveller prejudice.
At present there are 4,000-5,000 asylum seekers in Ireland. They
are not permitted to work or study, usually for several years,
until their cases are heard. They face a shower of ignorant
invective from the ``I'm not racist, but...'' brigade of the media.
As Daithí Doolan of Dublin Sinn Féin stated at the recent Ard
Fheis, the use of deceptive terminology such as ``the rising tide''
or ``flood of migrants'' has induced a siege mentality into Irish
culture. Aidan Perry of Anti Fascist Action put this into
perspective at Saturday's rally when he commented that ``there are
more Irish people in Munich than there are immigrants in Ireland.
The press and politicians alike talk about the need to put Irish
people first. As if they were just on the point of housing all
the homeless when refugees started arriving.''
During the bad economic times of the 1980s, when 40,000 emigrants
were leaving this country every year, Irish Government ministers
appealed to the US Government to grant an amnesty to Irish
``illegals'' who had sought more prosperous lives there. Millions
of people have emigrated from Ireland. How can we now be
hypocritically transposing into a racist and incompassionate
society? Economic success certainly does breed corruption and the
danger is, that instead of rightly blaming the system for their
predicament, working class communities will be used by the
right-wing to lead the attack on migrants.
Since Febuary this year 12 asylum seekers have been deported by
the Irish Government who have indicated that they will allow only
10% of immigrants to remain here. As what is termed ``economic
migrants'' and not ``genuine refugees'', the other 90% are likely to
face deportation. This policy was seen in action recently when a
Ukranian immigrant, on being told he was to be deported, slit his
wrists in a drastic bid to avoid a fate he could not face in his
own country. He was then taken temporarily to a Dublin hospital
and promptly deported to Britain and from there to the Ukraine.
As Sinn Féin TD Caoimghín O Caoláin commented, in an address read
on his behalf by Pat Guerin to the rally, ``as a nation which has
for centuries known the pain of enforced exile we above all must
defend the rights of those people fleeing political persecution
and economic deprivation.''
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