Sir - It is encouraging that the small number of Kosovar refugees welcomed to Ireland will have social welfare entitlements and will also be permitted to work and to stay in Ireland for as long as they wish.
However, these excellent provisions raise the question of the status of Kosovar asylum-seekers who have previously come to Ireland as victims of the brutal Milosevic regime in their country. Surely natural justice requires that they be accorded the same status as those Kosovars who are coming here as programme refugees. Both categories are equally the victims of outrageous exploitation, irrespective of their manner of arrival in our country. Most Kosovars already in Ireland have lost relatives and feel deeply traumatised by the abject situation of their families.
The Irish Government has frequently voiced its concern for the victims of Milosevic's brutality. Equalising the position immediately of all Kosovar refugees in this country would be a very simple and justified step towards making a humanitarian rhetoric concrete. - Yours, etc.,
John Feighery, S.V.D., Valerie Hughes, City Quay, Dublin 2.