The International Protection Act, recently signed into law by President Catherine Connolly, raises cause for alarm in several significant respects. It aims to restrict family reunification for those granted asylum, imposing a two-year waiting period and financial conditions which, in effect, monetise human rights.

International law recognises family reunification as a fundamental right under the 1951 Refugee Convention. Likewise, article eight of the European Convention on Human Rights mandates respect for family life thereby overriding states’ attempts to impede reunification. Why legislate in such a way that expensive and interminable battles with the courts will ensue? The UK tried this and look where it got them with the Rwanda nonsense.

The bar is set high to win an asylum case; and in many instances claimants have endured considerable trauma. To add to the mix, the damaging consequences of the loss of re-establishing family life inflicts a monumental blow upon several human beings.

Are Government Ministers ready to engage in such performative cruelty to make them look tough on immigration and thereby lend legitimacy to the hard-right playbook? Do they not recognise that a human right does not depend upon the size of a wallet?

How weight-loss drugs are reshaping modern life: ‘I’m paying €250 a month not to eat’

MacSharry defends intervention in case of developer jailed for assault........

© The Irish Times