Athlone-area councillors call for 'more compassionate' EU response to refugees

The Athlone Moate Municipal District is to write to the top EU officials on migration and asylum policy to call for a more compassionate and supportive response to be shown to refugees seeking to flee perilous situations by moving to the continent.

Cllr Louise Heavin raised the matter at this month's district meeting, saying it was a "very upsetting" subject to speak about but one that she felt needed to be highlighted.

There was unanimous support from the other councillors at the meeting, many of whom talked about the shortcomings of direct provision in Ireland and the need for the Government to follow through on its commitment to end the system.

A motion put down by Cllr Heavin at the meeting sought to acknowledge "the thousands of people that enter Europe monthly as refugees, and the hundreds that are dead and missing in making the journey."

She stated that 36,238 refugees had arrived in Europe in 2021 to date, with an estimated 823 people dead or missing.

Her motion called for a letter to be written to "Josep Borrell, High Representative of European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Commissioner Megaritis Schinas and Commissioner Ylva Johannson who are working on the new Pact on Migration and Asylum."

She said the letter should outline the district's "concerns with the EU's current response" and should request "that we treat all arrivals with compassion and respect and increase supports to rehome people travelling from situations of peril."

Speaking at the meeting, the Green Party councillor said the refugee crisis had gotten "considerably worse" since the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic.

She explained that her motion had been prompted by "a very harrowing headline" in the Guardian newspaper in May which read: '2,000 refugee deaths linked to illegal EU pushbacks'.

"I think the onus is on us as local representatives to say our views and appeal to the powers that be to really help these people out. I certainly don't agree with these pushbacks," she said.

"We should have structures in place to deal with people compassionately - to deal with people in the way that we would like to be dealt with if we were in a horrible situation in our own country and had to go to a new country to seek refuge."

Cllr Aengus O'Rourke commended Cllr Heavin for raising the issue and for the way she had spoken about it.

"This is from the heart, clearly, and of course why wouldn't it be when it involves human beings, children and families," he said.

"I think as a country we haven't showered ourselves in glory in terms of how we have handled or managed people who have arrived into this country in distress or seeking asylum."

He said that, in Athlone's direct provision accommodation centre, people were still "languishing there for years on end" without an answer from the Department of Justice as regards their legal status.

"Babies are growing up into teenagers in that centre. Decisions are not being made when they should be made. People are being denied a chance of a normal life involving work, having their own home, different types of education and apprenticeships, and all of that kind of thing."

The Fianna Fáil councillor said there had been a commitment from the Government to end direct provision, but the Government was now a year in power.

"I know I'm criticising my own party, in a way, but I haven't seen meaningful action on this, and I personally know people who are years on end in the accommodation centre. All they want is an answer, yet they're being stonewalled or ignored."

The refugee crisis had "maybe gone off the front pages" since the start of the pandemic, Cllr Vinny McCormack said, but it had not gone away.

"There are still families, women and young children making this treacherous trip and putting their lives in their hands," said Cllr McCormack (FF).

"In our own country, the sooner we see the end of the direct provision system the better.

"People who come into the country need to be given a fair crack of the whip in terms of giving themselves a life, getting themselves a job, and being able to move on and look after their family and not being stuck in this limbo that is the direct provision system."

Cllr Frankie Keena (FF) said this was a "very emotive" subject. "We have a small earth that we're living in, we're all human beings, and everybody should be looked after equally and supported in any way we can," he said.

He also mentioned the photograph of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian boy whose lifeless body was washed up on a Turkish beach in 2015, saying this image had stayed with him as it captured the "horrific" nature of the situation.

"Hopefully Louise would agree that we'd send a letter to our own Ministers in relation to the commitment in the programme for Government to end direct provision in Ireland. We need to see action on it," said Cllr Keena (FF).

Cllr Tom Farrell also supported the "very passionate and very well-put" motion from Cllr Heavin.

"One thing I'd have to say about Ireland as a nation is that we have a good understanding of what happens to some of these people, going back to our time with the Famine, so I think as a nation we try to help out," said Cllr Farrell (FG).

The discussion ended with Cllr Heavin thanking her colleagues for their support.

"As Cllr Farrell put it very appropriately, we have a historic understanding of distressing situations and we are a country that has sent our people all over the world, and have been welcomed all over the world, so we also need to welcome people from all over the world to our shores," she said.

She added that in February her party colleague, Minister Roderic O'Gorman, had published a White Paper that "sets out a pathway" for ending the direct provision system in Ireland.

"It's not going to happen overnight, but it does aim to end this current system by 2024, which is undoubtedly ambitious considering how long people have stayed in accommodation centres," said Cllr Heavin.

"From speaking with Minister O'Gorman previously on this, they are looking to get rid of the worst accommodation first, so that would be the likes of the accommodation centre in Athlone where people are housed in mobile homes.

"They're trying to close off those types of facilities and move on, and the strategy now is to try to home people first."

She added that she didn't see any harm in sending a further letter to the Government, "stating that we do firmly want an end to direct provision, we can't let these timelines slip, and we need to be ambitious on it."

PHOTO: Athlone's asylum seeker accommodation centre in Lissywollen, in a still from the 2019 documentary film, 'Leaving Limbo'.