For the last few weeks, I have been involved in a joint research report with the Greek Council for Refugees. The report, Tipping the Scales: the Role of Responsibility and Solidarity Sharing in the Situation on the Greek Islands, assesses EU member states’ solidarity programmes and how failure to meet commitments has contributed to pressure on the Greek Islands, spawning abysmal conditions, and systemic human rights abuses.
The report also looks at the EU’s newly proposed asylum laws, with particular focus on the proposals for responsibility-sharing and solidarity mechanisms. We found that, despite promises of starting anew, the policies on the table fail to address the flaws that led to the overcrowded and inhospitable conditions in EU camps that we continue to see today.
Only a third of asylum relocations committed to in the 2015 to 2017 pledge have been met. And although there were indications of solidarity in the aftermath of the Moria fires, as commendable as they were, many of the commitments made have yet to transpire.
Greece, a country quickly overwhelmed as the number of people seeking asylum in Europe increased due to the outbreak of war in Syria in 2015, has since harshened its stance on asylum.
Meanwhile, the human cost is mounting in Lesbos. One in five people have attempted to take
their own lives; people, including survivors of sexual violence, and elderly persons are detained without reason; there is a risk of sexual assault, and children are not receiving any education.
I will conclude with the words of an elderly Syrian refugee, currently in prolonged administrative detention in Kos: “We don’t even have our basic rights as refugees. We are not free and we don’t know for how long [we will remain detained]. “They are replacing our names with numbers, treating us as if we were in prison, calling us by our numbers.”
This is the European Union in 2021. Our failure to respond effectively as a community is extinguishing hope. Our inaction is, at best, leaving people in limbo; at worst, it is sending them back to the persecution they tried to escape. We need genuine solidarity and responsibility-sharing among EU member states if we are to live up to our own international obligations — obligations designed to protect lives.
Erin McKay
European migration campaign manager Oxfam Ireland
Thorncastle St
Ringsend
Dublin 4
ASTI has been proven right
I refer to Michael Gannon’s letter “Antagonistic ASTI might shoot itself in the foot” ( Irish Examiner letters, February 16), in which he criticises the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) for foisting extra stress on students and parents because they pulled out of talks with the Government over Leaving Certificate plans.
He then criticised the union for its stance on predictive grading last year, its threatening strike action because of the dangers of Covid-19 in schools, and its rejection of the new service pay agreement. As a teacher and a school steward for ASTI, I feel the need to challenge these criticisms.
Last year, the ASTI had sought meetings with the Department of Education and Skills for weeks
regarding state exams. Poor communication from it left teachers,
students, and parents in the dark. Then the decision to introduce predictive grading was sprung on teachers at the last minute.
The ASTI was evidently unhappy with this, yet complied. The ASTI pulled out of talks with the department last week due to a lack of transparency over plans for the Leaving Certificate. Perhaps with what has transpired over the past few days, the ASTI’s actions have amounted to something after all.
It highlighted the poor planning involved in reopening schools last September and the subsequent dangers posed to school communities from Covid-19 with many lacking adequate PPE, devices for online learning, and the HSE’s redefinition of a close contact in the school environment.
ASTI members rejected the Building Momentum public service pay agreement because it fails to rectify pay inequality for teachers hired after 2011. The existence of a
two-tier pay scale has deeply damaged the teaching profession. The
purpose of a union is to represent the interests of its members, which is what the ASTI does. If there is an organisation that has foisted extra stress on students, teachers and parents it is the department that Mr Gannon conveniently omitted to mention in his letter.
Daniel Howard
Rathgar
Dublin 6
Crack down on rule-breakers
I am writing in response to Liam Herrick’s article ‘Covid plan needs more carrot and less stick’ ( Irish Examiner analysis, February 17).
Mr Herrick wants us, the law-abiding citizens of Ireland, to pardon those who break the rules: The holidaymakers, partygoers etc, when in fact it is this small cohort of people who are prolonging the confinement for the rest of us with their reckless behaviour.
He complains that the Government and, by extension, the gardaí have been very heavy-handed in their approach to managing the crisis when in truth the opposite is the case.
The Government has been very reluctant in introducing new restrictive legislation and that which has been enacted has been cautiously implemented by the gardaí.
Of the four Es utilised by the gardaí, engage, educate, encourage, and enforce, the first three have been used for the most part and the fourth one, enforcement, only as a last resort.
What we really need now is, yes, more carrot for the law-abiding citizens, but more stick for the rule-breakers.
Michael Henchion
Ballincollig
Cork
Don’t forget the most vulnerable
A simple request to the HSE. Please give a higher priority
to dialysis patients, transplant
patients, and those with diabetes to receive the vaccine.
We are the most vulnerable members of society. I have all three conditions. And so it goes.
Kevin Devitte
Mill St
Westport
Co Mayo
Time to retire vicarious scribe
Anthony Leavy writes again on his favourite subject — his belief that women’s voices are not heard enough in society ( Irish Examiner “Women not heard — proportionally” February 17).
One suggestion is for Mr Leavy to voluntarily put away his scribal pen (or keyboard) and let some female member of the public occupy his letter-writing space instead.
Every letter he gets published leaves that much less space for a female voice.
Can we look forward to his ‘retirement letter’ in your next edition?
Nick Folley
Carrigaline
Co Cork
Is the new vaccine a gamechanger?
The Taoiseach’s recent declaration that the Johnson and Johnson single-dose vaccine will be a game-changer isn’t the morale booster as perhaps it should be (‘Taoiseach: Johnson & Johnson vaccine a ‘game-changer’ in Covid battle’, Irish Examiner, February 17).
This, despite the fact that the vaccine referred to, is produced by a company whose range of babycare products brought so much relief
to our house when the kids were small.
I’m afraid the shadow of Micheál Martin’s promise of a meaningful Christmas still hovers.
Michael Gannon
St Thomas’ Square
Kilkenny
Sparks to fly when vaccines collide
When I was young and had a chest infection the doctor gave me antibiotics and paracetamol. I asked him if I could take both at the same time.
He asked me was I afraid they would be fighting in my stomach.
I am reminded of this when I see the two different Covid vaccines and I wonder if a recipient of a single-dose Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine breathes next to a recipient of the AstraZeneca vaccine will there be sparks in the air?
John Williams
Clonmel
Co Tipperary
Mother and Baby report scrutiny
The constant criticism of the Mother and Baby Home report authors, makes one wonder why anyone would want to undertake such an important task. Having read large parts of it, it seems clear to me that society, as a whole, failed and discriminated against single, pregnant women for years. While there were always individuals and services who tried to offer compassionate care, progress was slow. Can I request those criticising this report, to read it in its entirety first?
Frank Browne
Templeogue
Dublin 16
World must back Burmese people
From my experience of working with Burmese civil servants under a previous military regime, I am only too aware of the deep personal cost of protest in terms of security, discrimination, and career progression for all civil servants. The people of Myanmar are extremely brave and they deserve much greater international support than has been forthcoming to date.
Co-operation with the US, Australia, and EU in implementing robust sanctions should also be followed by other Asian countries, particularly India, Malaysia, Singapore, and, critically, Thailand. If China and Russia are blocking forthright condemnation of the coup in the Security Council (of which Ireland is a member) then it should be taken to the floor of the General Assembly.
Dr Joseph Mullen
Ballina
Co Mayo
Time US scrapped electoral college
Whatever the original justification for the US electoral college voting, it is time to get rid of it. Like every other democracy in the western world, the US should adopt the simple system whereby the candidate who gets the most votes wins.
If this system were adopted, then the result would be clear more quickly and, if the incumbent president lost, then he/ she should have to leave office within 30 days.
Brendan Casserly
Cork City
