I felt compelled to respond to The Irish News article ‘Rough sleepers forsake city centre for bustling café culture suburb’ (October 9).
In general terms a large proportion of the homeless in Northern Ireland are EEA nationals who end up rough sleeping as they are ineligible for benefits or services in the UK.
The Immigration Act 2014 and the Immigration Act 2016 were introduced by the present Conservative government to create barriers for EEA nationals in areas of work, housing, healthcare, benefits and immigration. The ‘hostile environment’ for migrants is designed to make life so difficult for individuals without permission to remain that they will not seek to enter the UK to begin with or if already present will leave voluntarily. It is inextricably linked to the net migration target. Invariably these policies have created an increased risk of homelessness and discrimination for these individuals.
The NIHE’s Homelessness Strategy 2012 to 2017 states as its primary vision: “The aim of this homelessness strategy is that long-term homelessness and rough sleeping is eliminated across Northern Ireland by 2020.” (Executive Summary p7). This has clearly not happened and conversely the NIHE’s draft Homelessness Strategy for 2017 to 2022 acknowledges that there is a section of individuals who have no option but to sleep rough by reason of the fact that they are ineligible for welfare and states specifically: “4.3.4 No Recourse to Public Funds: There is also a cohort of clients who may end up sleeping rough as they may be ineligible for benefits or services in the UK.”
These policies create a cycle for these individuals who inevitably fall into a position of abject destitution and homelessness.
From this position the Home Office seeks to remove these homeless individuals from the UK in classic example of ‘Hegelian Dialectic’ under the policy of “European Economic Area Nationals: Misuse of Rights and Verification of EEA Rights of Residence” (version 2), published for Home Office Staff on February 1 2017, which suggests at p.10 Example 2 that an individual who had been sleeping rough had been abusing their EEA rights.
This policy is currently the subject to legal challenge in both Northern Ireland and the UK on the basis that it breaches the individuals fundamental rights under the EU Treaty, the citizens directive, the domestic implementing legislation and Articles 3, 8 and 14 of the ECHR.
CONAL McGARRITY
Dungannon, Co Tyrone
Wrong to claim moral high ground while formulating hollow standards
On January 7 2015 fundamentalists launched a horrific attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a Parisian satirical magazine. Twelve people died in the rampage and 11 others were injured.
The deaths that day cannot be condoned. It was a senseless slaughter.
In the aftermath more than 40 ‘world leaders’ marched arm-in-arm through the streets of Paris in a show of solidarity with the victims of the religious fundamentalists. Among the ranks that day were Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Six months previously, Netanyahu gave the go-ahead for Operation Protective Edge, a barbaric onslaught upon the two million beleaguered residents of the Gaza Strip in Palestine. During a 51-day period 2,202 people died.
According to B’Tselem, an Israeli Human Rights organisation, 1,437 of those who died were civilians. Of those civilians, 546 were minors aged 17 and under and of those minors 180 were children and babies aged five and under. That’s 180 small children and babies who were slaughtered by the Israeli authorities at that time.
B’Tselem have long ago made public their in-depth and shocking report, which not only provides statistics but also records location of
death for each victim, their names, ages, and in many cases includes a photograph with additional information.
With this in mind, I ask, where was the march through Paris, or London, or Dublin for the civilians and children of Palestine brutally cut to pieces? Those 546 minors offended no-one.
Yet those heads of state marched with Netanyahu in full knowledge of what had been done.
Do 1,437 Palestinian lives mean less than those of 12 French citizens?
Where today are the in-depth news exposés of continuing Israeli injustice, ethnic cleansing and the ongoing killing of Palestinian children?
It would appear that something is very wrong with those who, in our societies, would inappropriately attempt to claim the moral high ground while formulating hollow standards that we are all somehow obliged to adhere to.
ANTAN O DALA AN RI
Newry, Co Down
Light a candle for lost lives
SUNDAY is recognised as Infant loss Awareness Remembrance day throughout the world. The event is supported by 40 Charities in the UK. Their website invites everyone to take part in a ‘global wave of light’ to remember the babies that have died during pregnancy, at or after birth by lighting a candle at 7pm.
I suffered the loss of two babies, one through miscarriage, the other born prematurely. My little son lived only a few minutes. These are heartbreaking times for parents and their families. I am now 74 with two lovely children and three wonderful grandsons but the babies I lost are still very real to me. It is thus very poignant that on the very day when throughout the world we will be commemorating the loss of our little ones, voices are being raised in Stormont to make it easier to end the lives of so many babies. I have no political affiliation nor do I belong to any pressure group. I am simply a mother. A woman has rights but as a mother she also has responsibilities towards the precious life she carries within her, to care for it and nurture it as it grows within her.
Abortion seems like an easy answer at the time but it is difficult for a mother to forget the life that might have been. Many may grieve for the baby whose life they ended. Perhaps they have not had an opportunity to have another baby and are living with regrets. I invite them to join me in lighting a candle for all the babies who have lost their lives during pregnancy whatever the cause.
AILEEN HALL
Belfast BT14
Limavady can wear both titles with pride
It is no surprise that Sinn Féin has objected to Londonderry being used on Limavady’s Welcome sign. It is another attempt to erase Northern Ireland’s symbols of our British and Protestant culture. Where is the shared society, equality and mutual understandings that they speak so strongly about? Both Londonderry Air and Danny Boy are worthy traditional titles with a unique history. The tune was composed by a harpist of the O Cahan clan for the chieftain Rory O Cahan, it was preserved by an itinerant fiddler, noted by a Limavady woman Jane Ross and published by an Englishman Fredrick Weatherly.
This melody and song had a special sentimental message to exiles throughout the world. It was a favourite of song writers worldwide – including American Steve Foster whose ancestors came from Londonderry.
But the most forgotten person in the story was the fiddler James McCurry, he was born blind and used his musical talents to earn a living. James died in a Limavady workhouse in 1910 aged 80. Limavady can wear both titles with pride for they present a history that can be shared by all sections of the community irrespective of class, creed or political affiliations.
JAMES McILHATTON
Ballymena, Co Antrim
