Integration

Conor Lenihan has an interesting conception of abuse. Judging by what he is quoted as saying here,

The major delays in settling and dealing with asylum applications at the moment is principally focused on the legal challenges that are being taken by a very active and voracious group of barristers down in the Bar library who are representing clients virtually on a ‘no foal, no fee’ basis,” he said.

it would appear that he thinks that barristers, active and voracious barristers at that, are doing something wrong by fully exploiting the legal possibilities open to them to protect the interests of their  asylum-seeker clients.

If Conor was ever to find himself in legal difficulties and his barrister said to him, “Well, we can appeal that in the High Court, it’s worth a shot.”, I wonder if he’d respond by saying that he thought that would amount to an abuse of the legal system and the patience of the public and that he would be happy to take his medicine without further protest. I fucking doubt it.

There is more.

Arguing that a strong asylum regime is essential to maintain public confidence in migration policy, Mr Lenihan said the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill would tighten the system and shorten the initial waiting times for decisions. Applications for asylum have been falling steadily for years, from more than 11,500 in 2002 to fewer than 4,500 last year.

“If you don’t control the flow of people and if our own population sense that the system is open to abuse . . . it really does wreck the whole perception of migration for everyone else. That’s not a good thing,” he said in an interview with The Irish Times .

Conor doesn’t appear to realise that migration policy is one thing and the state’s obligation to provide asylum for genuine seekers of it are two different things. The former is a matter that the government can legitimately decide – subject to the same human rights considerations as all other legislation – on whatever policy it wants, the latter is  a binding obligation on the state arising out of its ratification of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees . If Conor thinks that we should renounce our obligations arising from this treaty he should say so.

Whatever public disquiet there might be about migration policy in Ireland isn’t going to be alleviated by chat like this from Conor Lenihan. And to think that he is the Minister for Integration.