Inaction will not resolve this dilemma - Immigration crisis

ALL around Europe nasty, hateful little political parties and social movements are getting traction on the issue of immigration because mainstream politicians, and socially liberal societies too, are unsure of how to deal with the escalating, ever-more pressing question, one that seems set to become the challenge of our age. 

It is as if a potent mixture of race and religion has transfixed Europe and made it very difficult to advance an honest and humane policy. We are no different in Ireland and have fallen back on the tried-and-tested policy of ah-shure it’ll-be-alright-on-the-day. Something, anything, will turn up. Another Irish denial of another Irish problem.

This evasion was epitomised in recent weeks when Afghan stowaway Walli Ullah Safi, 21, had his arm broken and face slashed when he was imprisoned for the “crime” of being here illegally. That Safi — who can’t speak Engish — should be jailed in a country that is almost defined by emigration and the loss of millions of its citizens determined to make a better life elsewhere is more than sad, it is offensive, deeply hypocritical, and simply wrong — as is the practice of an individual being held more or less captive in our justice system, sometimes for years, while asylum applications are assessed. That Safi was jailed without being convicted of anything puts the outrage in another far darker category altogether.