Sir, - The Government decision to allow between 2,000 and 3,000 asylum seekers the right to work must be welcomed by all those who understand that although Ireland may be a geographical or geological island, it is firmly and increasingly linked in to a European and global destiny.
We need to incorporate something of the world's diversity into our own society in order to keep us outward-looking and relevant in a now fast-changing world. Where would we have been without the Nemedians, Partho lonians, Tuatha De Danaan, Celts, Danes and Normans?
However, there is still some concern over the new Immigration Bill. As one of the many Irish who found themselves very well received in other countries (I have recently returned from 10 years' working in Southern Africa) I am worried about the mean-spiritedness and hidden racism of the new Immigration Bill, designed as it is to replace the 1935 Aliens Act. The Bill gets rid of the word "aliens" but then gives powers to the Minister for Justice to deport would-be immigrants at his (or her) sole discretion. The records show that millionaires have been given passports but people fleeing torture have been turned away.
Secondly, the Bill allows for "non-nationals" to be deported who have been charged with any crime eg not paying a TV licence.
Thirdly, the Bill extends the power of the Garda to arrest non-nationals "without a warrant".
Ireland badly needs new workers, skilled and unskilled, and it is good that SIPTU, our biggest union has spoken out through Ms Rosheen Callender to say that it "is determined that asylum seekers who find work in Ireland enjoy the full protection of our employment and equality laws".
It is necessary for the Government to introduce a Bill which eases immigration restriction and abandons its present concern with deportation. - Yours, etc.,
Jimmy Blake, Grosvenor Mews, Douglas West, Cork.