This week it was the turn of Mr Stanley Obina Chukwu. A Nigerian asylum seeker, he had been sent to Waterford under the Department of Justice s dispersal policy. Within a few days, he and a group of fellow asylum seekers had first been confronted and then attacked by a gang of local youths. Stanley Chukwu suffered a broken nose in the assault. Returning to hospital a few days later to continue treatment of the injury he had sustained, he was again stalked by the thugs who had attacked him. The following day he packed his bags and returned to Dublin. According to news reports, he has now refused to leave the capital.
These more highly publicised incidents represent just the tip of the iceberg. All over Dublin, and all over Ireland, non-whites are now being routinely subjected to racial abuse and intimidation. Sometimes, it is done overtly and directly, with immigrants and refugees being told brazenly that they are not wanted. Other times it is done slyly and with unconcealed contempt, loud conversations being held about people, as if they re not there, in which racial insults are blithely and maliciously trotted out vileness masquerading as pearls of wit and wisdom.
A Romanian woman is alone at a bus stop she steps forward, puts her hand out and watches in disbelief as a half-empty bus accelerates by. This is Ireland.
A Dublin woman, with her black man-friend, steps out to hail a taxi. At first the cab seems to slow down then with a roar of the engine, it pulls away again, empty. She watches in furious anger as it stops 100 yards up the road to pick up three passengers, all white. This is Ireland.
We cling to the comforting assumption that the vast majority of Irish people are not racist, and that a small minority are responsible for the horribly mundane expressions of prejudice and hostility that are increasingly in evidence. And maybe that s right. But there is no doubt about the fact that Ireland Inc., that the State itself, and in particular that the Department of Justice and the Minister for Justice, are at the heart of, and have encouraged, the drift towards racism. To hold a prejudice is one thing; to feel free to express it is another; and to feel free to express it publicly, and in particular through acts of intimidation and violence, takes racism to a different level entirely.
In Ireland, people capable of racial prejudice have been encouraged to express that prejudice by the policies being pursued by the State, by the language used by politicians and in particular by the ignorance and the scare-mongering of the Minister for Justice. The fact that the State itself is acting in a racist manner has given those capable of racist prejudice the confidence to express their prejudice through violence.
So it is necessary now to deal with the existence of racism within the system. The evidence is there that non-white Irish citizens are being subjected to routine harassment by Immigration Officers working for the Department of Justice. The evidence is there that attempts made by them to challenge those responsible for that harassment through official channels are treated at best with indifference.
There is evidence, indeed, that the very basis on which the immigration authorities are operating here now is markedly and fundamentally racist. There is evidence that black people who as citizens of Ireland and the UK, have an unqualified right to travel between the two countries, are now being subjected to questioning and attention and sometimes harassment simply because of the colour of their skin.
Who is responsible for this racist policy? Who told these officers of the State to select black people or Asian people for special scrutiny? What safeguards are in place to monitor the activities of immigration officials, some of whom have been known to abuse their powers grievously in the past? What disciplinary procedures have been put in place to deal with immigration officers found to be responsible for racial discrimination? Have these ever been used?
All of this comes back to the Minister for Justice. Given his own role in inflaming prejudice. John O Donoghue is clearly incapable of dealing with the racial discrimination being exercised by his own officials. Sadly, it seems futile to suggest that he should resign though it would certainly be in everyone s interest if he did. But responsibility for immigration policy does not have to be left with the Department of Justice. The problem of racism has the potential to escalate horribly over the next five to ten years. If it is allowed to, this will represent a huge threat to the stability and the prosperity of Ireland and of Irish society.
If we want to prevent the problem from escalating, the time for action is now. And the first necessary step is to take racism out of our immigration policy, and to take it out of our dealings with people travelling in and out of Ireland.
To achieve this we must remove all responsibility for immigration policy from the Department of Justice. We must establish a separate Department or Commission to deal with issues relating to immigration, refugees and political asylum, which would be founded on principles of openness, egalitarianism, anti-discrimination, responsiveness and justice.
And finally our politicians, from the Taoiseach down, must begin to talk the talk. We are all equal. The colour of your skin doesn t matter. Immigration is a good thing. Everyone is welcome. And on one thing you can rely: we will deal with you, no matter where you re from, absolutely fairly.
The real crisis isn t about immigration it s about racism. And the solution to that is entirely within our own hands.