Current Concerns

Our views on general immigration policy can be read in our Submission to the Public Consultation on Immigration Policy

Geneva Convention

A major concern has to be the continued operation of the Geneva Convention. Those who framed it did not foresee today's world or they would surely not have shackled themselves to it. Because it insists that all asylum-seekers must be let in and because very few of the vast majority who fail will be removed, it comes very near to being in effect an open borders policy. We must unshackle ourselves from it. See Charter 44.

Low Level of deportations

The level of deportations from Ireland is utterly ridiculous: 301 deportations in 2006.

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In so far as current EU moves towards a common asylum and immigration policy are an indication of a stricter regime, that is encouraging. Nevertheless, the process is fraught with dangers for Ireland. Anything which would diminish our right to be as rigorous as we require is worrying. Common measures which would represent an improvement for countries which already have very large immigrant populations could represent a worsening of the situation for us.

This draft Constitution for Europe is a huge problem in this regard. In part 111, Article 111 167 and Article 18 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights it enshrines the outdated Geneva Convention on the status of Refugees (1951) and the New York Protocol (1967) in the Constitution. The European Court could in future strike down changes we made in asylum law as unconstitutional. The cannot be accepted.