I won’t bow to asylum threats, says Ahern

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern last night insisted he would not give-in to “threats” from hunger-striking Afghans in St Patrick’s Cathedral as that would lead to a wave of similar church protests across Ireland.

Mr Ahern said there would be no negotiations and warned the Government would not tolerate a situation similar to the one in Belgium where 20 churches are being used to highlight deportation fears.

The Taoiseach’s hard-line stance was attacked as hypocritical by Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins in light of Mr Ahern’s high-profile demands for up to 50,000 Irish illegals in the US to be regularised there.

“We are not going to give way to threats,” Mr Ahern told the Dáil. “There will be no negotiations.

“There are 100 nationalities in the asylum process at present and to concede to any demands from the protestors would have major negative consequences for the asylum system.

“And there is no doubt that concessions would lead to a similar protest and a major inflow of additional applicants in the hope that they would benefit from similar actions.

“Belgium at the moment has 20 churches where there are asylum seekers. We are not going down that road.”

Mr Higgins compared the plight of the Afghans to undocumented Irish workers in America and demanded to know why they were being treated differently, especially as Afghanistan was one of the most unstable countries in the world.

“Don’t think you should consider it a threat when people are so desperate and insecure for their future that they put there health and even life at risk,” Mr Higgins told Mr Ahern.

“People come looking for our health and compassion from the places from which they come. Afghanistan is one of the most violent and disturbed countries on Earth,” he added.

The Taoiseach insisted Ireland had one of the fairest asylum systems in the Western world. “We have a very fair process. It’s recognised as that in the EU and the UN. We have been very fair and very tolerant,” he said.

“None of these people had finished the process, none of them had a deportation order and St Patrick’s Cathedral isn’t an office dealing with our legislation and neither is any other church. If we give in to this we won’t be able to have a process,” Mr Ahern added.