Fine Gael's spokesman on justice, Mr Jim Higgins, yesterday called for an amnesty to allow the 4,500 asylum-seekers in Ireland to stay. Democratic Left will make a similar call tomorrow when it publishes a private member's Bill proposing an amnesty.
However, Ms Aine Ni Chonaill of the Immigration Control Platform said she was "completely opposed" to such a proposal. An amnesty would send the wrong signal about the Government's "softness and inability" to deal with the situation, she said.
The likelihood of large-scale deportations has moved closer after the Department of Justice wrote last week to 23 asylum-seekers to say their applications had been turned down at the final appeal stage. It gave them 15 days to leave the State or say why they should be given humanitarian leave to stay.
A further 50 cases have been decided in the appeals system presided over by the former Circuit Court judge, Judge Peter O'Malley, and are being considered by the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue.
An inter-departmental Civil Service committee is considering all aspects of the refugee issue, and Department of Justice representatives on it are understood to have expressed strong opposition to an amnesty. However, deportations are not likely to take place until the Cabinet considers the committee's report next month.
In the High Court today lawyers for a Chilean family of asylumseekers is to seek a judicial review of the Department's refusal to consider their application. The Department had ruled that the family should make its application in the UK.
Last week the lawyers obtained an injunction on behalf of the parents' one-week-old daughter against any attempt by the Department to deport her family. The girl was born in Limerick and therefore qualifies as an Irish citizen.
Mr Higgins said the Government's failure to implement the Refugee Act meant that Ireland was the only EU state with no statutory basis or independent authority for dealing with refugees.
"In view of the huge backlog and unsatisfactory arrangement now in place, the Government should introduce a Morrison visatype amnesty similar to that which enabled thousands of young illegal Irish in the US to regularise their situation," he said.
An amnesty would provide for a fresh start in dealing with asylum applicants, according to Mr Higgins. It would also free resources within the Department and allow asylum-seekers living in temporary accommodation in inner-city areas to disperse throughout the State.
However, Ms Ni Chonaill said that an amnesty would have an incremental effect because many asylum-seekers would then want to bring family members to Ireland. The larger the non-European population became, the easier illegal immigrants would find it to merge into the background, she claimed.
Ms Ni Chonaill said she had dropped plans for a Dublin launch of the Immigration Control Platform as there was nothing to be gained from it. The national inauguration of the organisation in Ennis earlier this month was disrupted by protesters.
