No room at the inn
By Sean O'Donaile
This week sees the passing of International Human Rights Day, 10
December and a rush by TV stations to highlight many worthy
international injustices, though for some strange reason this
doesn't include Plastic Bullets, Shoot to Kill etc etc, as that
might upset the Unionists.
The Free State has a coloured past when it comes to taking in
refugees and asylum seekers. Many of those who arrived here,
including Hungarians in 1956 and Chileans fleeing Pinochet's coup
of `73, left as soon as possible, and the current arrivals have
received anything but a ``Céad Míle Fáilte'', highlighted in RTE's
Prime Time. There are currently 20 million political refugees
globally, 4,000 of whom are on the Emerald Isle, which has
witnessed a ten fold increase in the last two years.
Unfortunately, the various institutions seem unable or
uninterested in catering for these people.
In takes anything up to two years to have one's application
processed, during which time the refugee cannot work or study and
is left in Limbo-land. Those who are successful subsequently find
it extremely difficult to find employment in a racist climate,
which has been exacerbated by media scare stories about ``our
beautiful land being over-run by blacks and Romanian gypsies who
sacrifice sheep in their back gardens, and rob all our dole
money''.
The Refugee Act of 1996 is still in the courts and behind the
fancy rhetoric the State seems unwilling to face up to its
obligations, hiding behind the recent European Convention, which
forces a refugee to seek asylum in the first EU country they set
foot in, thereby ruling out Ireland in most cases. Many of those
stopped by the numbskulls at Dun Laoghaire or from the Belfast
train have experienced racism, in the same manner as those
stopped under the PTA getting off the ferry in Holyhead.
Various refugees reminded us that they have come here not for our
dole but to escape death at home and liken Ireland to the ``Celtic
hamster - a fluffy little thing doing well for itself in the
corner and not wanting to be disturbed by outsiders''. Meanwhile
Minister O'Donoghue says if you fail the test ``you should do the
honourable thing and leave the country''.
It was oh so different for the 500 or so German children who were
brought here under ``Operation Shamrock'' (RTE), in 1946. This
documentary followed the efforts of Elizabeth O'Gorman to track
down the the War - babies who had stayed on here after `46.
The `Save the German Children Society' was set up in the
aftermath of the razing of German cities in World War 2, and
Elizabeth O'Gorman was one of the few who stayed in Ireland after
the three year stint was up. Her mother died when she was four
years of age and Daddy was one of thousands who never came home
from the Russian Front, forcing her family's dispersal. Her two
sisters were sent to farms in Germany and Elizabeth was shuffled
off to Ireland where she wasn't to see her clan again for many
moons.
A number of those who have remained here quickly acknowledged
their Irishness, after unsuccessfully trying to reclaim their
German roots. There are still some who feel their ``heart is in
Germany'', and it made one wonder at the wisdom of sending them in
the first place.
Channel 4 ran the shocking Innocents Lost this week, which
highlighted some of the many cases of child abuse by the state
across the globe, including the disabled of Greece and glue kids
of Guatemala. Since the military coup in 1954, Guatemala has been
run by US multinationals and banana companies. Poverty and its
side effects are rife and any opposition to the government is met
by US backed death squads and routine police torture.
HB Fuller is one such company, whose products include Resistol, a
toxic glue, which many street children have become addicted to.
Fuller in good old capitalist fashion help out local charities,
but refuse to change their glues, and their profits last year
were £1 billion. These street kids are routinely raped,
assaulted, tortured, electrocuted and murdered by the State
police who look on them as fair game.
The sight of disabled Greek children and adults strapped by the
hands and ankles to bed until they die was even more shocking.
Disability is still a major social stigma in Greece and many
disabled are simply kept alive for up to fifty years in
conditions unimaginable, padlocked in 4ft cages, wallowing in
their own urine and being thrown food like dogs. One such case,
Anastasia, who was one of the lucky ones without a roof on the
cage, was abandoned by her parents as a child and has not been
removed from her bed in fifteen years. And we call this
civilisation - Merry Christmas, me arse.
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