Racist border checks
Tourists stopped four times in one day
By Brian Campbell
Four young people from Manchester who are regular visitors to
Ireland were stopped and questioned by ``immigration police'' four
times in one day as they travelled between Newry and Dundalk last
Thursday 21 August. On each occasion white people who were
travelling with them were not questioned.
In one incident, at a checkpoint at Drumadd in County Louth, a
garda patrol stopped the car in which Lee Britton and his
girlfriend Dee-Dee Phillips-Clarke were travelling. They
questioned Lee and Dee-Dee and ignored the others (four white
people) in the car. They asked the two visitors for their
``papers'' and when told that they had none they orderd the car to
pull over to the side of the road. The car was held for twenty
minutes while ``immigration specialists'' from Dundalk were
summoned. These turned out to be two young Garda who again asked
only the two young black people.for their names and where they
were from.
The garda, when challenged, said, ``we have to look at everyone we
suspect of being aliens''. The garda in Dundalk have admitted that
they identify ``suspects'' initially by skin colour.
Lee Britton and his brother and sister, Sen and Clare Collins,
have relatives in Newry and Dundalk and they are regular visitors
to both towns. This is the first time they have been subjected to
this harassment. They have registered a complaint with the 26
County Minister of Justice, John O'Donoghue.
Newry Sinn Fin Councillor Davy Hyland decribed the incidents as
``blatantly racist''. ``There have been several reports recently of
visitors to our country being victimised at this border crossing
simply because of the colour of their skin. It is an absolute
disgrace that the state practices this type of open racism.''
The border checks have been in operation since June when the last
26 County Minister of Justice, Nora Owen, authorised, for the
first time, immigration controls at points of entry ``from the
UK''. This was seen as being in response to the hysteria created
by a rise in the number of refugees seeking asylum in Ireland.
``It is sick that in Ireland we see this type of racism when the
Irish have themselves suffered from racism over the years when
seeking asylum in other countries,'' Councillor Hyland said.
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