Ireland’s approach to refugee crisis is prudent

George Hook

WISDOM is having the good sense to sit on an impulse and let time take its course. The most fatal mistakes are often made on a bed of impulsivity, and a younger mind is usually the most susceptible to a snap judgement.
It is why children are often victims of bullying. Most adults understand that a person never fully reveals themselves in a first meeting. But kids tend to latch on to an appearance or a voice and use whatever information they can gather in the first few seconds of an introduction to form an opinion.
“That kid has a funny voice!” “That girl’s shoes are awful!” etc...
It is an unfair process, really, but children - for the most part - don’t know any better. As adults, we understand that relationships take time to form and that every person is different. Judging someone on a first impression is quite often a recipe for a lost opportunity.
Investment in time and a consideration of the bigger picture is the best way to avoid the ‘impulse trap’. But in today’s fast-paced society, where time is increasingly a scarce commodity, more and more of us are being encouraged to jump to conclusions.  
Social media has made critics of us all, where a ‘blink-and-you’ll-miss-it’ mob mentality only further encourages us to speak first and think later.
But what are the consequences of such an approach? What happens when the world decides to forgo logic, consideration and reason in favour of split-second decisions, based on little more than impulse emotion?

Real life manifestation
The answer to that question is playing itself out across Europe as I write. The European response to the Syrian refugee crisis has been desperately ill-thought-out and inconsiderate. The result is a mass movement of people and all out chaos.
It is difficult to understand why this has been allowed to happen. On the back of the horrific images of two drowned young boys on a Turkish beach recently, the heads of state in Europe’s leading countries decided to throw open their borders and pledge accommodation and support to hundreds of thousands of displaced refugees.
Theirs was unquestionably an emotive response to a most harrowing tragedy, but was it the right one?
Is it right that Germany, Sweden, France, Britain et al invited millions of desperate refugees to travel across Europe, by any means necessary, in the hope of being granted asylum?
How much consideration was given to the potential repercussions and consequences of the promises to take in huge numbers of people from very different cultural and ethnic backgrounds?
And what of Syria’s neighbours in the Persian Gulf states? How many asylum seekers has Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain taken in? Not a single refugee between them.
This refugee crises brings with it serious security concerns. Conservative estimates place at least one active ISIS member in every fifty refugees seeking asylum. If Europe is dealing with numbers reaching into the millions over the coming months, how devastating the potential for terrorism and havoc?
And how can border security across mainland Europe be expected to weed out the terrorists from the genuine refugees in such a mass movement of panic? It simply cannot happen.
The same emotive nonsense that started this current European crises is also responsible for feeding the criticism of the treatment of refugees in this country, with the asylum seekers in Mosney. But most of those currently confined in holidays homes in Meath have already been turned down for refugee status in Ireland and are awaiting a process of appeal.
The state has a duty of care to its citizens to investigate anyone seeking refuge or asylum, and ensuring, at the very least, that they are who they claim to be. If Ireland was to open its doors to everyone claiming persecution, the country would be bankrupt and destroyed within a year.

Considered approach
The Irish government is currently in negotiations with other EU members, offering to shoulder its own share of the burden. Thankfully, our own heads of state have so far refrained from acting on impulse in favour of a more considered, thought-out approach.
Whatever figure Ireland ultimately agrees upon - and I believe we have a moral obligation to offer assistance to those in genuine need of help - it must be proportionately balanced, measured and fully costed and detailed. There is little point offering asylum without a proper system in place to integrate and cater for the men, women and children coming in.
Meanwhile, the rest of Europe continues to struggle in the midst of a humanitarian crisis. The movement of Syrian refugees shows little sign of slowing down and as more and more present themselves for asylum, the strain on Western Europe grows heavier by the day.
If we could wind back the clock now, would the heads of state that were so rash in their original response reconsider their actions in favour of a more considered approach? Unquestionably, they would. Now though, they must face up to the consequences of their actions. Where this crises will ultimately end, God only knows.