Out of control

The Irish National Consultative Committee On Racism Ireland has asked the Gardai to prosecute Aine Ni Chonaill’s Immigrant Control Platform under the Prohibition Of Incitement To Hatred Act. The NCCRI confirmed that they would begin legal proceedings against the organisation over a recent concentrated bout of leaflet distribution in north Dublin.

“I think the key thing is to draw a distinction between free speech and incitement to hatred,” says NCCRI director Philip Watt. “We do not come out against groups or individuals who have a different opinion about refugee, asylum and immigration issues than ourselves, but the way that debate is actually conducted is very important, and this leaflet appears to us to be specifically targeted at an area where there is significant minority ethnic population. The tone of the letter is deeply offensive and has language like, ‘Help stop the invasion and colonisation of Ireland’. That’s clearly intent on stirring up tensions and is particularly sinister towards the run up to a general election.”

Asked by Hotpress to respond to the NCCRI’s decision to seek a prosecution, Aine Ni Chonaill said: “People like Philip Watt do not want the public to hear what we’ve got to say because there are many true facts that nobody else will tell. Philip Watt and people of his ilk – by which I mean the asylum advocates, the ‘Let’s have a multi-racial society’ people, think this is a moral as opposed to a political issue – which it isn’t.”

As well as calling for a halt to the “invasion and colonisation of Ireland” the ICP leaflet specifically targets Nigerian immigrants. It goes on to state that, “in August 2001 38% of the births in the Rotunda Hospital were to non-nationals” and that “Ireland is the only country in the EU where every child born here is automatically a citizen. This makes us a special target for illegal immigration. Asylum-seekers are now seeking and receiving fertility treatment in our hospitals to take advantage of this loophole!!” The leaflet concludes by saying, “Go into your town centre. Have a look around. Is this what you want for the future? This was forced on us without our consultation. Remember, this happened in less than 4 years and this is just the start.”

The dissemination of such sentiments prompted worried phone calls from Nigerian citizens to the Pan African Organisation following the leaflet drop. A spokesman for the PAO claimed that the leaflets are causing tension in the community and could cause the situation to become volatile.

In Philip Watt’s view: “A number of the statements which are purported to be facts in the leaflet are deliberately misleading, alarmist and one-sided. To give you one example, they talk about the significant number of people from Nigeria seeking asylum applications in the EU and Ireland and then in the next line it says that Nigeria has a population of approximately 120 million, the implication being that these people will be knocking on our doors in the next few days.

“The other particularly offensive bit is: ‘Go into your town centre. Have a look around. Is this what you want for the future?’ That clearly points to the fact that this organisation is pointing to the people who are visibly diverse, in other words black people. So while they are targeting a particularly vulnerable group such as refugees and asylum seekers, it’s quite clear that they have a broader agenda, which is anti-diversity full stop.”

How does Aine Ni Chonaill respond to allegations that the ICP set out to target areas with significant minority ethnic population?

“Everybody seems to be harping on about Dublin 7,” she says. “These have gone out in the Ballsbridge area, they’ve gone out in the Castleknock area, I think there were members putting them out in Leixlip, I was in Galway over the weekend on business and I put them out, they are scheduled to go out in Cork, it is intended that they go out in many areas. I mean, how idiotic can people be? If you want to address yourself to those who are concerned on this issue – and we do – you don’t go to where there are no immigrants, you obviously put it out in areas where people know it’s happening. It is obviously a lot more sensible to be putting these out in Dublin city than in the middle of Leitrim.”

Does she accept that the leaflet contains statements that could be construed as anti-diversity?

“I take your point,” she says, “but it’s simply a way of saying, ‘Look what has happened with the immigration situation so far’. If you’re walking around your town, the people you will know about are those who are known as visible minorities. Now it is also true then that if you are sitting at a table and you hear the people at the next table speaking Russian, then you will realise also that they’re involved. When I’m in Dublin visiting or on business, what makes me realise the extent of immigration is obviously the visible minorities. ‘Look around’ simply means, ‘Look and listen’.”

But would she concede that such statements contain undertones of racism?

“You use the word racism,” she responds. “I only accept the classical definition of the term racism, which is the belief that one race is superior to another. I accept no other definition. And apart from the fact that there’s no reason I should, the ploy of all the Philip Watts of the world is that they will keep making their more nuanced definitions of this word until it covers everything that they hear that they don’t like. It says on the back page of our leaflet, ‘Nobody who holds views of racial superiority is welcome in the organisation’. There is a very big difference between saying that any particular race is lesser than others – a thing I would never say, nor would you be allowed in our organisation if you did – and saying that they have no right to barge into our country and use the asylum process and/or illegal immigration to get around our immigration laws. These are people who are literally engaged in the modern form of invasion, and those who don’t like that fact, that’s just too bad. If I barge my way into your house and insist that I’m staying in it forever whether you bloody like it or not, I’m invading your home.”

The Immigration Control Platform was formed in 1998 with the aim of lobbying for tighter Irish immigration laws. As well as a means of making illegal immigration an issue in the forthcoming election, the latest ICP leaflet drop also serves as a recruitment drive. To date, Aine Ni Chonaill has repeatedly refused to put a number on the organisation’s members. When Hotpress asked her to disclose ICP membership figures, she said, “I am mandated as PRO by my committee to speak on policies only and not on internal organisation matters.”

The ICP leaflet controversy was further inflamed by a recent Observer piece which claimed that the far right British National Party has expressed support for the organisation, quoting BNP national chairman Nick Griffin as saying: “We’re aware of the good work they’re doing and prepared to be involved. Many of our members here in the UK are Irish, and they’re very worried about what’s happening in their homeland with regard to immigrants.” According to that report, Griffin claimed he has been in “frequent” contact with the Immigrant Control Platform.

When asked to comment on the Observer article, Aine Ni Chonaill questioned the accuracy of Nicola Byrne’s report and said that: “We have never spoken to the BNP, we have never written to the BNP, and from our end have never communicated with the BNP. I asked our e-mail person if we’d had an e-mail, and I’m not sure whether he said, ‘Yes we had’ or ‘I think we had’; he could’ve quite easily confused them with someone else. But he said he thought early on – we’re founded four years – we’d had some kind of an e-mail message saying, ‘Saw your website, good work’ or whatever the hell. Obviously you would expect that the BNP would approve of people who were giving out about the abuse of immigration. But we are a stand alone organisation and we have never communicated with them.”

Does it concern her at all that the British National Party was mentioned in the same report as the ICP?

“It’s very difficult for me to answer that in the sense that I know almost nothing about them, and whether the denigratory way in which they are spoken of is deserved or not, I can’t say, because I know how the media are about these things. Knowing how people like to demonise organisations, as, for example, Phillip Watt is trying to demonise us, I would be loathe to say anything like, ‘Oh, we don’t want our name associated with them,’ to make it sound as if I was denigrating those people of whom I know nothing. Obviously when I see them trying to demonise us, I can only say, ‘Perhaps they did the same to them’, I have no idea’.”

Philip Watt’s view on the matter is this: “Why would the chairperson of the BNP lie on this issue? Either (i) the ICP are covering up their links with the British National Party, or (ii) the ICP has and will attract people who will share the views of the British National Party and that those people will be in close contact with the BNP.”