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Irish rescue effort in Libya highlights importance of consular protection

Sunday, February 27th, 2011

There has been some controversy over the rescue efforts to evacuate dozens of Irish people from Libya this week. Some complaints have appeared in the press that the Department of Foreign Affairs was slow to respond; a DFA spokesperson highlighted the difficulties of organising a rescue, telling TheJournal.ie,  “We don’t have an embassy in Libya and it’s a very difficult situation without being on the inside.â€?

While Ireland did manage to rescue many people on the government jet, there were reports that some of the Irish in Libya were distressed by what they perceived as an initial attitude of unresponsiveness. The Irish Examiner reported:

The department’s response to the situation has been heavily criticised by a number of Irish who fled from the Libyan crisis, with some saying they were advised to book flights online, use their common sense, or travel to tourist agencies to obtain tickets out of the chaos. This was despite those who fled the country insisting the internet had been blocked and it was unsafe to travel to tourist agencies.

Several press reports noted some Irish people left on flights arranged by Britain’s Foreign Office. The Irish Independent quotes one such person, Claire Walsh, a 30-year-old from Kildare working as a teacher in Tripoli:

We decided to help ourselves rather than rely of the Department of Foreign Affairs. What really annoyed me at the airport was that I saw Italians, Ukrainian and Japanese representatives walking around with their countries’ flags trying to find their own nationals. Surely if there were good government relations between Ireland and the Italians that somebody could have told them to help us. Instead, we got ourselves out.

Most of the press reports have failed to mention that European nationals are entitled to consular protection from other EU nations if there is no consulate from their home nation in a third country. In other words, if there is no Irish consulate and an Irish national needs assistance, he or she should be able to attain it from consular officials of any EU nation in that country. This is a result of an EU law introduced in 1995; I’ve pasted in text explaining the law below.

Another point that should be kept in mind is the relevance of the Department of Foreign Affairs and consular services to the debate on emigrant voting. Overseas citizens may at some point find their lives relying on Irish consular protection. Yet they have no way of holding the Irish government accountable on this. It’s just one of a number of issues that Irish people at home have no reason to consider, but which can have definite impact on the lives of the Irish abroad.

Information on EU consular protection rights from the Europa.eu website:

What is the right to consular protection for EU citizens?

Every citizen of the European Union who is in a country outside the EU, in which the Member State of which he/she is a national is not represented, is entitled to protection by the diplomatic or consular authorities of any Member State represented there. EU citizens are entitled to protection on the same conditions as the nationals of that State.

In 1995 Decision 95/553/EC was adopted by the representatives of the governments of the Member States to implement this entitlement.

What kind of assistance is provided?

When an EU citizen seeks such help, he or she must produce a passport or identity card as proof of nationality. If these documents have been stolen or lost, the embassy may accept any other proof.

Diplomatic and consular representations giving protection have to treat a person seeking help as if he/she were a national of the Member State they represent.

The protection offered by embassies/consulates of other EU States comprises:

• assistance in cases of death,
• assistance in cases of serious accident or illness,
• assistance in cases of arrest or detention,
• assistance to victims of violent crime,
• the relief and repatriation of distressed Union citizens.

The EU will publish a Communication on consular protection next month, and will also be launching a website to increase public awareness of the issue.

For more information on Irish rescue attempts see the Irish Independent: “Evacuees return with tales of woe.“

7 reasons this will be the last election Irish emigrants won’t be voting in

Friday, February 25th, 2011

I’ve been writing about emigrant voting since about 2006. When I started, it seemed that any victory in the battle for the emigrant vote was a long way off. I don’t believe that anymore. In fact, I believe we’ll see emigrant voting by the next general election. Here’s why.

1. We see them everywhere, still. Emigrants may have left, but they’re still up there on our Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, Skype contacts, and even our TV screens.  They’re joining the chat about Fianna Fail, Lucinda Creighton, rugby, The Rubberbandits, you name it. Some people still try to make the argument that Irish people abroad aren’t staying informed, but it’s a fairly obvious denial of reality: expats have the same access to most of the same media that any of us in Ireland do. They’re going to keep consuming this media, and they’re going to keep appearing in it. It’s going to be harder and harder to pretend that their voices are ill-informed or irrelevant.
2. The truth is out: emigrant voting isn’t the preserve of a few countries. In reading the Dáil debates of the past, one of the most striking features is how little actual knowledge there was about how many countries allowed their emigrants to vote. People referred to countries like France, the UK, and the US as if these were anomalies, and emigrant voting were some kind of peculiar national quirk, undertaken by these few radically democratic nations. Now, however, we know that emigrant voting is a global democratic norm: thanks to a 2007 study by IDEA called “Voting from Abroad, the International IDEA Handbook, it’s fairly common knowledge that more than 115 countries and territories allow their expats to vote. This includes nearly all developed nations, and nearly every other EU country.
3. Our current situation is irrational. Our policy-makers want to be global leaders in diaspora relations, and, in truth, Ireland is pretty close. The global Irish community is loyal, active, in touch, and engaged. We value their economic contribution: the 21st-century version of remittances includes such activities as business networking, opening new markets to Irish companies, and directing FDI. Our global networks supporting Irish sports, heritage and culture are vibrant. Yet when it comes to the emigrant vote, we’re seriously out of step with the rest of the world. We section off politics as the only realm of Irish life that’s off-limits to our overseas citizens, while most nations treat political engagement with their diasporas as a basic tool of these relationships.
4. It’s only fair to give them a say. Occasionally, Irish residents will argue that emigrants should not have the vote because they don’t want non-resident citizens making decisions that affect people living in Ireland – yet they don’t consider that the government is also making decisions that affect overseas citizens.What are those issues that concern emigrants? Many are the same issues that might concern any other Irish citizen, but there are a few that are of particular interest to the Irish abroad. Some Irish people pay taxes while abroad; some who inherited family homes, for example, have had to pay the tax on non-primary residences introduced in recent years. Some of our most vulnerable emigrants (many of whom are from the 1950s and 1960s generation, who saved little for themselves while sending millions back home) depend on programmes paid for out of the emigrant support services budget. Others receive Irish pensions based on contributions they made while working in Ireland. Any expat at any time may find themselves in need of consular protection, as the troubling events this week in New Zealand and Libya showed.
   If you’re Irish and you want to come home, an economy that will enable you to return home to a job will be of paramount concern. Some of those coming home have had to seek social welfare assistance, yet thousands of returning emigrants have been denied this under the habitual residence condition – despite assurances on the introduction of this legislation that returning emigrants would not be affected. Civil partnership and spousal immigration legislation will affect whether an emigrant can return home with his or her partner.

   Who in Ireland is speaking up for the interests of our overseas citizens in these issues? Emigrants need their own voices heard.

5. The 1998 changes in the constitution deterritorialised the Irish nation – and firmly positioned our overseas citizens within it. The new Article 2 says it is “the entitlement and birthrightâ€? of every Irish citizen “to be part of the Irish Nationâ€?. As Article 1 tells us, it’s the Irish nation that has the “inalienable, indefeasible, and sovereign right to choose its own form of government, to determine its relations with other nations, and to develop its life, political, economic and cultural, in accordance with its own genius and traditionsâ€?.  How can one segment of the Irish nation take away the inalienable, indefeasible, and sovereign rights of another? The question needs further exploration.
6. The bogeyman of The North is dead. For the last few decades, the debate over emigrant voting rights was overshadowed by the fear in some circles that there was a radicalised overseas electorate lurking within the heart of Irish-America, ready to launch gunmen into office. If this were ever true, it’s certainly not now, however many fears may linger in the minds of those Irish residents who cling on to their outdated, stereotypical notions of the Irish in America. Brian Cowen acknowledged it: The Northern Irish peace process united Irish opinion with the diaspora. The Irish in America played an enormous role in facilitating that peace process, and it’s time to get over the idea that an irrational fear of our own citizens is a reason to disenfranchise them.
7. European institutions are starting to take an interest. While the EU has always regarded expat voting as an issue of national competency, there have been several international bodies that have taken steps toward emigrant voting rights recently. The European Court of Human Rights, for example, recently ruled that Greece needed to implement the emigrant voting provisions it had introduced into its constitution some decades back; while the decision was primarily based on the Greek constitution, it also took into consideration that out 29 of 33 Council of Europe countries had implemented procedures to allow voting by overseas citizens. The court is currently dealing with the case of an elderly English man living in Italy who is challenging the UK’s 15-year time limit on expat voting. These kinds of cases aren’t going to go away, and it’s likely that these types of challenges will increase.
   Meanwhile, the 2010 European Commission report on citizenship has indicated that the EU will take a look at this issue in the future.  The report pledges that the Commission “will launch a discussion to identify political options to prevent EU citizens from losing their political rights as a consequence of exercising their right to free movement�. With the increasing international trends toward engaging overseas citizens, European institutions will be more likely to be active in these issues in the future.

With the mood for reform sweeping Ireland, I’m confident that the many proposals that have been made aimed at giving emigrants a voice will result in real change – and if the new government doesn’t implement these kinds of changes, we’ll just fall further out of step with the rest of the world, and with the legitimate desires of our own citizens for a say in the government of their own nation. We need our emigrants. We can’t expect the same level of loyalty from our our overseas citizens as we did in the past if we continue to refuse them the basic right that nearly every other developed nation in the world would give them.

Ireland’s Lost Wall: a reminder of our emigrants

Friday, February 18th, 2011

An Irish social media designer has created a powerfully emotive project meant to remind Ireland of those who have emigrated. Colin Hart is a returned emigrant, back from four years in Canada. His project, Ireland’s Lost Wall, is a simple site with the names and current locations of dozens of Irish expats, along with the reasons they left Ireland. If you’re living abroad, consider putting your own name up!

While not a political project, Colin explains that his project is tied in with the upcoming general election and emigrants. He’s planning on spending next week projecting the names on the walls of prominent buildings, including various party headquarters, to remind voters of those who have left. As he says on his website,

“Every night up until the 25th, the names from the wall will be projected onto prominent buildings around Ireland to remind people with votes, their responsibilities and how important it is that the representatives they choose will make this country a better place to live and a better place for all the people on the wall to return to…some day.”

He told me, “It’s to highlight we’re not just voting for ourselves. When I was away, I would have loved for people to consider me because I wanted to come back.� His own sister, currently in Australia, is also on the wall, and he’s hoping that “we can make Ireland a place for her to come back to in a few years�.

While emigrants can add themselves to the wall, they can also remove themselves – an important point for Colin. The wall is meant to be permanent: “it lives forever until everyone who has gone away can come back and click that remove buttonâ€?, signifying they’ve come home.

The website’s design is similar to the old-fashioned idea of a memorial wall, such as the one at Ellis Island, consisting of a list of names. Click on the names, however, and you’ll get more detail. A sampling:

• Jenny Kelleher, Vienna, Austria. “Job!â€?
• Kate HIckey, New York, US. “Got a jobâ€?
• Hugo Kennedy, Toronto, Ontario. “Lack of a better ideaâ€?
• Angela Banks, London. “I fell in love with a nice man in a country where the politicians have the decency to cover up their corruption.â€?
• Emmet Marsh, London. “Dublin was septic and depressingâ€?
• James McCay, Sydney. “I didn’t have a job and I had to leave.â€?
• Ida Hefferan, Seattle. “When I applied for the visa I thought I would never get it but when it came through, I had to go. There is very little for me in Ireland at the minute.â€?
• Lena Sharp, Melbourne. “Ireland is an amazing place and home but it seems like everyone is leaving, all my friends are hereâ€?

It’s a simple project, but a fascinating one – the quotes from the emigrants are lively, loaded with wit and humour and poignancy. The site is accompanied by a video describing the project, which is also worth watching.

The project reminds me a little of David Monaghan’s Leaving Dublin – in that both are taking the oldest theme in Ireland’s history and transforming the expression of emotion around that experience in really fresh ways, creating dynamic ways of looking at emigration that are both sympathetic and thought-provoking.

Ballotbox.ie allows Irish citizens abroad to cast symbolic ballot

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

Ballotbox.ie is now allowing Irish expats to cast a symbolic ballot in this year’s general election in Ireland. The site is aimed at the three million Irish passport holders living abroad.

The site opened on Monday and will remain open until 12:00 GMT on Tuesday 22. Only those living outside of Ireland will be able to cast a ballot.

The site’s organisers, who are based in Canada, have done a brilliant job at calling attention to the disenfranchisement of our emigrants. They have had much positive press coverage – highlighting the fact that emigrant voting is viewed as an increasingly normal part of expat life around the world.

A sampling of the press coverage:

• Symbolic voting begins for Irish emigrants living abroad‎ – Irish Central
• Emigrants to have symbolic online ballot for election – Irish Times
• Ballotbox.ie opens for Irish emigrants to cast symbolic vote – SiliconRepublic.com (I’m quoted in here).

Cast your vote at http://www.ballotbox.ie.

Emigrant voting rights: a party guide

Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

The emigrant vote issue has proven to be a surprisingly popular issue with political parties this year. Here’s a rundown of proposals and party positions:

Fianna Fáil: Fianna Fáil and the Greens had promised recommendations on the feasibility of extending the franchise for emigrants in presidential elections as part of their 2009 renewed programme for government. While the promise showed great foresight at a time when interest in emigrant voting was relatively low, these proposals never appeared; Green Party member Ciaran Cuffe has said on Twitter that the government simply ran out of time.

Onward. Fianna Fáil is again suggesting that the franchise be extended for presidential elections “to all Irish citizens, including emigrants”. This construction is slightly curious, as “all Irish citizens” would include two other large groups of citizens currently disenfranchised: those resident in Northern Ireland, and those citizens who have never lived in Ireland but who have citizenship through emigrant parents or grandparents. Fianna Fáil’s proposals to extending the right to vote to “all citizens” would by definition include them, but do they actually mean to do that? It would be a welcome move to those who value maximum enfranchisement.

Fine Gael: Fine Gael proposes extending the vote in presidential elections to “eligible citizens” overseas. They are also unusual in proposing the mechanism to do this: through Irish embassies. While the lack of a postal vote would be problematic for those not living close to an embassy, embassy voting would be a simple way of resolving fears over security. (It would also give Irish emigrants much local press and photo opportunities, as media outlets in democratic countries love photos of expats lining up outside their embassies to vote.)

Still, with emigrants scattered in every remote outpost the world has to offer, it’s likely that embassy voting would soon prove an incomplete answer. There are only 55 embassies around the world. The Irish Emigrant news service, for example, sends its newsletters out to more than 150 countries.

What’s more, Fine Gael says that if the presidential voting is a success, they will extend the franchise to general elections. They do not name the criteria they will examine to determine the success, however.

Fine Gael’s Simon Coveney has taken a particularly strong stance advocating for emigrant voting rights in two Audioboo podcasts, which are worth listening to: “Comments on the Way Home” and  “Irish Abroad Will Have Their Say”

Labour: The Labour Party’s Ciaran Lynch told the Irish Independent that his party would extend the franchise in local, general and presidential elections to emigrants for up to five years after departure. The mechanism would be through a postal vote. He told the paper:

“People who have been forced to leave this country in search of work are justifiably angry and should not be denied the chance to vote on how their country is run. Currently, the only people entitled to an absentee vote are civil servants and military personnel who are working out of the country. We want this to be extended to all emigrants, at least during their first five years out of the country.”

Green Party: Green Party candidate Ciarán Cuffe has said that those leaving Ireland should retain their right to vote in national and local elections and referenda for up to five years. I am awaiting confirmation on whether this is going to be an official part of their party platform, but this is from a party press release:

Deputy Cuffe said: “Many people leaving Ireland today do not intend it to be a long-term or permanent move. For some people emigration is necessary to find employment during the economic downturn. For others it is a lifestyle choice. However, many share a common desire to return home again once economic and employment conditions improve. I believe that all Irish citizens who have contributed so much to the State and wish to have a genuine stake in its future political direction of the country should not automatically lose to their right to vote once they leave the country.

“Under Irish law if you are living abroad you cannot be entered into the register of electors with some exceptions for Irish diplomats, members of the defence and police forces who can apply for a postal vote. More than 110 countries allow passport holders who live abroad the right to vote, however Ireland is not one of them.�

Deputy Cuffe said: “Ireland should look at French, Dutch and British examples of where the diaspora living overseas are afforded the right to vote electronically, or by mail or at a local embassy or consulate. If it can be done effectively in other countries we can do it here.�

Sinn Féin: Sinn Féin leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin has been an outspoken advocate of the right to vote. According to a November report in the Irish Post,

Sinn Féin is calling for the extension of voting rights for all Irish citizens, including emigrants, for Dáil, Assembly and Presidential elections and also support extension of the vote to emigrant Northern citizens in Westminster elections, and voting rights for all emigrant Irish citizens to a future reformed and directly-elected Séanad.

Ó Caoláin further added at the time:

“This issue has been a bone of contention for many years, with successive governments in Dublin refusing to extend to the Diaspora the same rights which almost every other European country gives their emigrés, to have a say in the democratic process at home. This denial for Irish people stands in stark contrast to the more than 115 countries world wide which has some such arrangements in place.�

So there we have it: it looks like every party is committing to offering some form of voting rights to at least some emigrants. Sure we’ll have to get the parties to stick to their promises, but it definitely looks like we’re moving toward acceptance of emigrant voting as the emerging democratic norm that it is.

Report tells of lonely deaths of elderly Irish

Tuesday, January 25th, 2011

The Sunday Tribune has reported that there are hundreds of impoverished Irish people with no known family being buried in unmarked mass graves in London every year by local councils.

The report says:

In a case recently highlighted by the Irish Chaplaincy in Britain, working under the auspices of the Irish Bishops Council, Galway native Patrick Duggan would have been buried in a ‘pauper’s grave’ by Southwark council, had not outreach workers from the chaplaincy been able to trace Duggan’s family.

The Irish Elder Persons project, based in the Camden Irish Centre and run by the Irish Chaplaincy in Britain, tracked Duggan’s relatives and his remains are to be returned for burial in Ireland.

Helen Kerins, whose family has roots in Galway and who works at Southwark council, said that of the 50 or so people whose funerals are organised and funded by her borough annually, about half are elderly Irish men.

“It tends to be men mostly, because women are more likely to tell someone of their predicament than men are in my experience,” she said.

This report struck me as particularly sad. We really need to remember that one of the costs of emigration has been the isolation and loneliness of many older Irish emigrants who have lost touch with their families and their communities.

And there’s something particularly poignant about the Irish link in death to the families of many emigrants. I once read a moving article about a family in England who had buried their father with a copy of his local Leitrim newspaper. It particularly struck me at the time as I had recently been to the wake of an elderly man in Queens, New York; most of those in attendance were Irish, and most of the relics on display to commemorate the man’s life were little tokens of Irishness – a book about his home village, a map of Limerick, a picture of him as a child in Ireland. My own mother’s grave is a fairly austere marker, with her name, birth and death dates, and the words, “Born in County Mayo”.

It’s one of the things I’ve always felt that the Irish in Ireland do not appreciate fully about the way many Irish emigrants live abroad: the way people can hold Ireland in their hearts so tightly that even in death the link remains something so essential that it’s some comfort for the survivors to note it.

And then there are these lonely men, alone in England and forgotten at home.

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