Mick Clifford: Asylum seekers subjected to Aontú's 'common sense' on immigration
When asked, Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín said he was not alleging that asylum seekers were responsible for crime but it was an issue that was coming up on the doorsteps. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA
The Aontú party's election document 'Our Common Sense Immigration Policy' launched on Tuesday, strangely focused only on one small element of immigration to the exclusion of all others.
It seems one man’s common sense is another’s dog whistle.
Asylum seekers accounted for less than 10% of the inward flow of people into the State in 2023, numbering 13,277 out of a total of 141,500 (Ukrainians fleeing the war made up around 40,000 of that number in a very unusual year). Yet it is asylum seekers, many of whom are among the most desperate people on the planet, who are being subjected to Aontú’s common sense.
The launch took place at Buswells Hotel near the Dáil. Party leader Peadar Tóibín was flanked by various election candidates. Aontú is hoping for a breakthrough this time around, and may well move beyond the single seat occupied by the leader, who also won a Euro parliament seat last June.
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Questions and challenges around accommodation for asylum seekers was a major issue this year but in recent months it has faded from the frontline. It remains to be seen whether other parties will publish specific papers on the matter and if it will feature as voters make up their minds.
Tóibín began by pointing out that his party has led on the issue of immigration, which isn’t accurate. Certainly, he has been a loud voice in asking questions around asylum seekers but he has had nothing to say about the other elements of immigration.
“This is an issue that we led on and the political establishment now, many of them are copying us word for word, which is incredible,” he told the assembled media. “This is an important issue for Irish society and for the cohesion of Irish society. Aontú is a pluralist Republican party. We believe everybody in Ireland should be treated equally."
The party wants a new “Irish border agency”, which has a Trumpian ring to it. “Lithuania, a country of similar population and size has an integrated border force of over 4,000 staff — our investment in a new border agency will be of the same magnitude.”
Lithuania is a former soviet republic, which borders a belligerent Belarus and is not too far from Russia. Maybe Aontú is expecting the Vikings to set sail for this country again, but otherwise it’s difficult to see a purpose to having 4,000 people dealing with the State’s “borders”.
There are a few bits in the document that might generally be accepted as actually fitting the term “common sense”.
A community dividend, including ramping up vital services, is proposed for areas which host migrants. Another proposal is that applications for protection be determined within six months. Enforcing deportations is a controversial area but one that may be open to debate.
Then we come to a proposal entitled “No Entry for Criminals”.
“We will not permit the entry into the country of anyone with a criminal record,” it states. How such records might be verified from countries like Afghanistan and Syria is not explained. But there is absolutely no evidence of asylum seekers committing crime to any extent that is anyway notable.
Certainly, there is plenty of disinformation and lies suggesting otherwise but why introduce such an idea if it is obviously baseless? When asked, Tóibín said he was not alleging that asylum seekers were responsible for crime but it was an issue that was coming up on the doorsteps.
He said we shouldn’t fear talking about these things and he rejected the idea that introducing the matter as if it was a real issue would inflame the lies and disinformation. Presumably, therefore, if it was coming up on the doorsteps that asylum seekers turned into vampires when the sun went down Aontú would be advocating for a vampire police unit to be set up.
To be fair, this type of dog whistling did not begin with Aontú. A few months ago, Sinn Féin reps were repeatedly noting that the party was “not in favour of open borders”. The reasoning behind such statements was that it was coming up on the doorsteps, and rather than point out that there was no such concept of open borders it was thought better to pander to the lies.
Back in Buswells another strand of common sense was presented in a proposal to ensure “fairness in allocation of resources”. This had to do with, wait for it, the government creating a situation “whereby some people who have entered the country have been given priority in areas like accommodation, health, and transport”.
This echoes with Donald Trump’s ravings about Democrats fitting out illegal immigrants in the best of threads before signing them up to vote in the presidential election. “We will ensure that non-citizens will no longer be prioritized over Irish citizens for any public service,” Aontú patriotically assert.
Such a premise is entirely spurious and plays directly into the hands of those who revel in spreading lies and kicking down on the most vulnerable.
When questioned, Tóibín cited the building of modular houses for Ukrainians rather than homeless people.
This ignores that previous attempts to build such accommodation was centred on Dublin and met huge opposition as being sub-standard. Once again, the objective of disseminating this stuff is to root around in the gutter beneath the fabled doorstep rather than explaining to householders that the allegation is based on lies. Much easier to pander than to tackle base prejudice.
In response to questions Tóibín said that there should be a conversation about these matters and that some in politics and the media didn’t want any such debate. It is difficult to fathom the value of debating about criminal asylum seekers and the state discriminating against citizens when both notions are based on lies that would needlessly inflame anger and prejudice. He did say when asked about it that he would be in favour of a reduction in the work visa numbers, but nowhere in the document was there a reference to any cohort but asylum seekers.
Next door to Aontú in the hotel, People Before Profit were presenting a document on disability. Paul Murphy said that the whole issue of asylum seekers was being used by the government to deflect from its mismanagement. Asked whether he still had reservations about Sinn Féin on this issue, as he had expressed a few months ago, he confirmed that to still be the case.
Last Sunday, when Fine Gael was under pressure over Michael O’Leary’s kick at teachers, Simon Harris stated that his party wants to charge asylum seekers for their room and board. This was already being planned by the outgoing government but there’s never any harm in restating something if it might net a few votes floating around in the nether regions of the doorstep.
In reality, the rules around international protection applicants have been tightened up in recent months in response to political pressure. Sources working in the system say that there has been a notable change. While some describe this as heightened efficiency, others wonder whether it is in danger of impacting on human rights.
Despite these changes, there remains in some political quarters the feeling that there’s still a few votes to be hoovered up by appearing tough on this issue, throwing out anything that might chime with somebody looking to have prejudices confirmed. All, of course, in the name of common sense.
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