The Department of Justice has disgraced itself again in its treatment of refugees seeking asylum in this State. On Saturday some 2,000 people had to queue for hours in the rain as they waited to update their identity cards, pending the hearing of their requests for asylum. In making these arrangements there was no consciousness that this might be hazardous for those fleeing political persecution. As for the long queue, a spokesman said it was not possible to handle the matter in normal office hours because of its scale. And, he added, the Department "could not be blamed for the weather".
This latest piece of humiliation for refugees should be a signal that the accelerating deterioration in their conditions must become a matter of greater public concern. More people are coming to this State in search of refuge after years when the numbers were very small. They have been attracted here by a variety of factors including greater prosperity, better welfare facilities and an awareness of Ireland's more confident and progressive profile in international affairs - including a belated modernisation of its legislative provision for refugees.
Most of them come from eastern Europe and central Africa, parts of the world that are increasingly important in Ireland's foreign policy. As their number increased into the thousands over the last year there was a political and media outcry which has fed the wells of xenophobia and racism that certainly exist in this State. In the dying days of the last government new procedures were introduced by the then Minister for Justice, Mrs Nora Owen, which breached the principle of free movement between Ireland and the United Kingdom for those suspected of seeking refugee status here, effectively by the simple but retrogressive technique of questioning non-white entrants at border points.
Her successor, Mr O'Donoghue, has reinforced the procedures. But his proposals to hire retired gardai and civil servants to vet incomers have run up against the opposition of public service unions, while implementation of the Refugee Act has been delayed by a court hearing. Meanwhile the Irish Refugee Council has informed the Department that from the end of this month it can no longer offer legal aid to asylum-seekers due to lack of proper funding from the State.
The common thread running through these developments is a disgraceful lack of financial and human resources to deal with what is in fact a perfectly normal part of Ireland's growing economic and political maturity. Resources are needed to cope with the greater number of asylum-seekers. They are entitled to a speedy hearing, in line with this State's international obligations - to say nothing of its own history of sending economic migrants and political refugees into the wider world, or, indeed, of the higher levels of development aid to which this Government is committed. Resources are also needed, urgently, to ensure that the next round of refugee registrations is carried out in a proper indoor facility and staggered to suit the convenience and the numbers of asylum-seekers presenting themselves.