Asylum-seekers left in a state of fear

IN the recent RTÉ documentary, States of Fear, depicting the fate of thousands of Irish children in ‘institutionalised care,’ the impression might have been conveyed that the sort of psycho-pathological indifference among those directly responsible — whether of church, state or family — was a thing of the past. This is not so.

As someone involved with asylum-seekers and refugees over the past three years, I can say that precisely the same mindset is alive and well and active in this area.

The refusal to allow stressed-out families and individuals relief from institutional living removed the only option left to them when they fled oppression in their own countries freedom. This is being done under cover of economic considerations (not unlike the story in States of Fear) and is carried out by confusing health and legal issues.