Time for a zero refugee policy? - *Read OP for mod warnings and threadbans - updated 11/5/24*

If, as is looking likely, China attempt to take Taiwan it will be interesting to see what the EU response is. Will the borders be open and millions of Taiwanese be offered temporary protection and supports? That’s what should happen based on the response to the invasion of Ukraine.

They are surrounded by water, they won’t be able to leave.

This leads to our other major problem in this country - electoral choices that range from "same again please" to "you must be f-in joking!"

Add to that the "workarounds" that FF/FG have found to our pesky democracy in recent times - Confidence and Supply, outright Coalition, and buying off votes to survive No Confidence motions, not to mention guillotining key legislation through the Dail with minimal debate - and we have a very serious problem with our political and governance systems as a whole.

On top of that, and linked to my earlier comments on the need for validation, is a system where important and far reaching decisions are being made based on Twitter comments and crusading. This nonsense about the "far right" for example that's being used to discredit anyone who questions the approach to these "controversial" issues - this is IRELAND. We don't even have a "right" anymore (just various shades of Left), let alone a far right!

This is a country of "ah shure it'll be grand" attitudes, where we still love the "cute hoor" or someone who gets one over on "the system", where there's general apathy to everything not directly affecting someone, and where events and decisions happen and pass with little more than a grumble down the pub. The electorate itself is a serious part of the problem as well.

But who's going to change that? SF? See the end of my first line for that one!

If SF and the dirty red commies on the hard left get in next time it will be 10 times worse than it is now.

I actually checked the date on that to see if it was April 1st. Nope!

Read an article recently about parents with autistic kids, criminal lack of support from government agencies- no funds, no staff etc. Yet they have 6 million to squander on this rubbish. Pathetic.

Interesting perspective on the migrant numbers in Germany from the head of a police union:

"The government’s refusal to deal with the ongoing migrant crisis is a “dangerous cocktail” that now threatens Germany, the head of one police union has warned"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixFwFULHBbM

A freedom of information request to the Home Office (March 20th, 2023) discovered that around 60% of people on board the dinghies in 2022 were genuine refugees fleeing war or oppression - meaning everything that Braverman, the Daily Mail and GB News have been saying about "illegal" migration has been a lie.

A further stat is that seven people who arrived by dinghy last year were found to have serious criminal convictions in their home country and were subsequently deported. Not 7000.....seven people.

What part of Ireland being legally obliged to take in asylum seekers is incorrect? The State is a signatory to both the 1951 Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights, is it not?

Is that a Shergar joke?

Republicans don't like horses for some reason. They've blown up all the horse statues.

Use of an opt out would be a hugely controversial move. Most countries in Europe would want to know why Ireland was refusing to take in refugees, when virtually no other country in western Europe is doing the same. They would be especially baffled given that Ireland doesn't even have a history of right wing politics or media or far right populist parties.

I've no 'skin in the game' here. But I'm seeing a lot of lies and misinformation being aired around the refugee issue. It's strange because we don't even have a particularly high intake of refugees in Ireland compared to many countries, either historically or in the present, apart from the unprecedented events of the last 12 months involving Ukrainian people.