UN, church leaders urge Afghan asylum seekers to end Dublin hunger strike
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at 13:13 on May 18, 2006, EST.
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DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) - Church of Ireland leaders and a United Nations
official on Thursday urged about 40 Afghan asylum seekers who have
occupied a landmark Dublin cathedral and refused food for five days to
stop their protest.
"We must appeal to all of the asylum seekers at this stage to end their
hunger strike and protest before matters deteriorate further," said a
joint statement from leaders of the Anglican-affiliated church: Armagh
Archbishop Robin Eames, Dublin Archbishop John Neill, and the Very Rev.
Robert McCarthy, dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral.
Neill went inside the cathedral to deliver the message personally to
the protesters.
And the UN High Commissioner for Refugees' representative in Ireland,
Manuel Jordao, who spent three hours talking with protest leaders
Wednesday night inside the 13th-century cathedral, said the protesters
had been "badly advised" and were extremely unlikely to win asylum
through the threat of starving themselves to death.
"This all-or-nothing approach - either you give us what we want or
you're responsible for our deaths - no system would survive if you
accept these sort of claims," Jordao told The Associated Press in an
interview.
Jordao said more than four million Afghans worldwide have been deported
since 2002 back to their homeland, where the extremist Taliban
government was toppled by a U.S.-led invasion. "It is not acceptable to
say, 'I am Afghan, therefore I am a refugee,"' he said.
Jordao said refugee law emphasized the need for asylum seekers to have
their cases heard individually. But he said the protesters were
refusing to discuss the details of their particular cases and instead
were aligning themselves with the hypothetical "weakest claim" in the
group.
This tactic, he said, "in terms of credibility is poor. If you have a
good case, generally you're not afraid to explain it. Overheating the
thing with a hunger strike is more suspicious and undermines your
case."
The Irish refugee-appeals process was often slow, but was fair and in
compliance with UN standards, he said. The hunger strikers were
"forgetting that they are expected to show respect for the law of the
host country," he said.
The Afghans began camping out in the cathedral Sunday and say they
won't resume eating until Ireland's immigration authorities allow them
to stay. Most of the protesters resumed drinking Tuesday, but about a
half-dozen teenagers in the group have continued to refuse all liquids,
a practice that could cause death within days without medical
intervention.
Paramedics are on standby outside and inside the church, and about 10
protesters have been hospitalized during the week suffering from the
effects of dehydration. All have been discharged and returned to the
protest.
The Church of Ireland leaders said St. Patrick's - a popular tourist
attraction best known for its associations with writer Jonathan Swift -
"must remain closed while this situation remains unresolved."
Justice Minister Michael McDowell said none of the protesters had been
issued with a deportation order. He said two of them already had
secured legal rights to remain in Ireland - one because he has fathered
an Irish-born child - and appeared to be protesting in solidarity with
Afghan friends.
McDowell said the vast majority of protesters had not fully pursued the
application and appeals process, which typically takes two to four
years. He said one protester applied for asylum in late 2003, 18 in
2004, 17 in 2005, and four this year.
He said more than 300 Afghans had applied for asylum in Ireland since
2003. He said Ireland's refugee applications commissioner had granted
refugee status to 30 applicants, while the Refugee Appeals Tribunal
accepted 23 more. The system was working, he said, and must be
defended.
"We cannot operate our asylum and 'leave to remain' process on the
basis of caving in to threats of hunger strikes or the occupation of
historical buildings. ... No democratic society can do business on this
basis," McDowell told lawmakers in Dail Eireann, Ireland's parliament.
Peter O'Mahony, chief executive of the Irish Refugee Council that
provides legal aid and other support for asylum-seekers, said he met
protesters inside the cathedral Wednesday and they "do seem to feel
absolutely desperate." But he also advised them to end the hunger
strike and resume legal efforts.