A New Phase In Anti-Racism Activism In Ireland

Nigerian Campaigners Awaiting Fast Track Deportations To Speak Out

A group of female Nigerian asylum seekers who are all living in a direct provision hostel on Lower Gardiner Street will next Tuesday hold a joint meeting which they initiated with help from Residents Against Racism in the ATGWU hall in Dublin. In a significant first for this country, the meeting will be addressed exclusively by Nigerians seeking asylum and campaigning for fairer treatment for asylum seekers in Ireland. The speakers include FGM campaigners, womens rights campaigners, anti corruption campaigners and other political activists and they hope to communicate the reality of living in modern Nigeria.

RECENT INDYMEDIA IRELAND STORIES ON THIS ISSUE
Interview With RAR Activist Just before last Mass Deportation To Nigeria
An Illegal Deportation Takes Place
Female Asylum Seekers March From Dail To Department Of Justice: Photo Report July 14 2005
Two Nigerian Women Explain Why They Protested Deportation Regime On July 14th 2005

"If the Irish people had even the remotest idea of the nonsense that lies behind a huge amount of these bogus claims, the patience of a lot of people would be tried very hard. I would much prefer to have a system where I could have an interview at the airport, find out the cock-and-bull stories and [put them] on the next flight, but unfortunately the UN Convention requires me to go through due process in respect of all of these claims." Michael McDowell: Rte News 18th May 2005

The time for tip-toeing around the Irish Government is over. I'm afraid we have a 'Bogus Minister of Justice' - he talks about 'Bogus Asylum Seekers' all the time - we must confront him and Bertie Ahern, who after all keeps him in the job. And it verges, in Michael McDowell's case, on incitement to racial hatred. He talks of 'Cock and Bull Stories,' he says if not for the United Nation's Human Rights rules he'd be out at the airport to send them back immediately. [....] We are entering a new phase of Anti-Racism activism in Ireland - it's got to be confrontational. If you play things by the book and keep your head down you are almost certain to be deported. You have got to make noise about it....' Rosanna Flynn 16th June 2005

"The High Court has ruled that the constitutional rights of asylum seekers have been breached by the failure of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal (RAT) to grant their lawyers access to its previous decisions. Mr Justice John McMenamim said the fact the tribunal does not publish its decisions "is unique in the common law jurisdictions".He believed such a position "cannot accord with the principles of natural and constitutional justice, fairness of procedure or equality of arms having regard to the importance and significance of the issues to the applicants which fall to be determined in this quasi judicial process." Ireland.com 7th July 2005

These women, some of whom have publicly protested in the recent past about their treatment at the hands of the Garda National Immigration Bureau and the Department of Justice, have been informed in the very recent past that they must sign on from now on at their hostel daily. They believe that they are being lined up at present for a fast track deportation procedure and believe the whole secretive deportation regime in Ireland is unfairly loaded against female asylum seekers from Nigeria.

They intend to use the public meeting to highlight the rampant opression of women in Nigeria and the inhumane practices that take place there as a result of this. They also want to highlight how unsafe and generally insecure everyday life in the country is at present. Some women who will be present are survivors of female genital mutilation. They do not want their daughters to go through the same experience they had to go through. Some of the women's daughters have died because of FGM and they will speak about this as well as generally highlighting the complete absence of women's rights in Nigeria.

Recently one of these women told an Indymedia Ireland contributor: "My name is *****. I am a native of Modakeke in Osun state. My experience with my in-laws since 2002 was traumatic and agonising. I was cajoled into bringing my late daughter for circumcision. I could not oppose as a woman my voice was not to be heard and my opinion was insignificant. I have given birth to five children – three boys and two girls. I lost my first daughter ***** when she was five years in 2002 to excessive bleeding. I fled from Nigeria because my wicked in-laws demanded that I bring my only remaining daughter for the same circumcision that killed her sister. We cannot be safe if we are forced back. I cannot afford to lose my daughter – I am existing because of my children."