Asylum seekers are really illegal immigrants

ON August 7 you featured letters, articles and editorials railing against the supposed bad treatment of asylum seekers by this country.

I have not read such propaganda in a long time.

If the other side of the debate on this issue, to which you give no coverage, used anything like your inflammatory language, then you would silence them with accusations of racism.

I am convinced that the vast majority of people in this country disagree with your viewpoint. I see this in simple terms. 90% of the people coming to this country presenting themselves as asylum seekers are nothing of the kind.

They are economic migrants illegally using the asylum process to gain entry to this country for a better life. They are not fleeing persecution. They use our citizenship laws as a method of staying here. Virtually none is deported. If the government even threatens to deport them, you rail against it.

If people come here with no case, it is hardly our fault that they are in fear of deportation.

Is it any wonder that frontline immigration staff get sick and tired of the abuse of the asylum process? Vast quantities of taxpayers’ money are being wasted on private rented accommodation and social welfare payments on people who are illegal immigrants looking for a better life through the asylum process.

Is it any wonder that there are traces of racism and growing levels of intolerance building throughout society when this blatant abuse is tolerated by our government and defended by elements of the media who see themselves as the moral arbiters of the country.

There is one method, and only one, that will reduce the rising tide of racism. We need an asylum system that the citizens of this country know is free from abuse, and that those who abuse it will be deported.

Unless this comes to pass, the intolerance displayed by a few frustrated immigration officials will be the norm throughout society.

Cormac Cahill,

72, Arbour Heights,

Carrigaline,

Co Cork.