Institutional Racism
The crisis at the Mount Street One-stop shop for asylum seekers, when
the doors were closed in the faces of long queues of people who seek
refuge in this state, provoked a display of racist comment in the
circus press that speaks to prejudice.
Irresponsible politicians also eagerly pandered to the lowest common
denominator as they spoke for electoral support.
Ivor Callely, chair of the Eastern Health Board, was supported in his
remarks about `throwing out' the `illegal immigrants', by Bertie
Ahern, talking to the same constituency. Minister for Justice,
Equality and Law Reform, John O'Donoghue, just as the Illegal
Immigrants (Trafficking) Bill was passing into law, saw fit to rail
against those refugees who, he claims, come over in hundreds in taxis
to Dundalk.
The politicians were hotly pursued by O'Reilly's gutter press, with
screaming headlines of racial abuse suffered by refugees and of scams
which refugees are alleged to perpetrate.
Under cover of this darkness, the government has declared its intent
to fingerprint all refugees, to make medical examinations mandatory,
and to introduce a voucher scheme for those who seek asylum here. The
Government has already begun implementing what it calls `dispersal',
where refugees have no choice as to whether or not they wish to be
`dispersed'.
At the same time, despite the failure to implement the 1996 Refugee
Act, and despite two major pieces of legislation which this government
has introduced, the Immigration Bill (1999), and the Illegal
Immigration (Trafficking) Bill (1999), the government declares it has
no immigration strategy and has set up a cross department committee to
draw one up.
In reality, of course, the government does have a strategy for
immigration and asylum seekers, terms it likes to confuse. It's quite
simple. On immigration, it is to facilitate companies to bring in
cheap labour from Eastern Europe, which is white, to fill the 50,000
jobs which cannot at present be filled. On asylum, the policy is: keep
them out by ensuring that their treatment here is at least as bad as
other spots in Fortress Europe.
The British are in the process of introducing a voucher scheme.
Refugees are issued with vouchers instead of cash. It means separate
shops, separate queues, much restricted choice, and all the petty
indignities of separateness. Ireland, instead of joining other EU
countries in support of policies which respect human rights, which
favour treatment of asylum seekers with humanity and dignity, which
pro-actively welcome cultural diversity into our society, instead
simply apes the English, and promises vouchers.
These schemes, which the government plans to introduce by spring, have
been roundly condemned by human rights groups, like the Irish Council
for Civil Liberties and the Refugee Council. Each of these schemes
sets refugees apart from the citizens of this state and denies them
right to `equality before the law', as the constitution guarantees to
its citizens. This is the very essence of racism - the differentiation
of a class of citizens from another class of `not quite citizens'.
These measures are institutionalised racism.
Dublin Corporation's recent decision not to give refugees access to
the new centre for the homeless to be opened shortly in Parkgate
Street, introduces discrimination which inevitably will ground racist
discontents. Dublin Corporation has no excuse whatsoever not to have
found accommodation for thousands of homeless people in the city, no
matter where the homeless may come from, or the colour of their skin.
A consultation document drawn up by the Equality Commission for
Northern Ireland - a Guide to Good Practice for Racial Equality in
Education - refers to the functions of the Equality Commissioner as
laid down in the Good Friday Agreement in his role to promote equality
of opportunity between persons of different religious belief,
political opinion, racial group, age, marital status or sexual
orientation.
The question is, will the Equality Commissioner based in Dublin meet
these obligations and how will that office deal with vouchers,
dispersal without choice, mandatory medical examination or
fingerprinting?
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)