Shocking but true, yes this is a story narrated by a Pakistani Irish citizen about himself, how he was denied the extension of his leave to remain on the basis of his marriage with a Lithuanian lady. How the bureaucracy played a very unfair game, just to deny this guy the extension which he deserved rightfully. This article (I have given the link below) is very nicely written and gives out a lot of information on the subject of the extension of the leave to remain and what remedies can be availed. What this guy did when he was in trouble, how he was misled and how eventually he found out a way to find out about the game being played by the bureaucracy. How he was unable to retrieve the information about himself from INIS and how he was able to force the same authorities to reveal the true situation about his application for extension and permanent residency.
Bureaucracy is so strong in this country that this Pakistani guy whose name is Ali and his Lithuanian wife were on the brink of being deported back to their native countries. His file went up to the minister on the appeal stage where bureaucracy was able to manipulate the minister to believe that there was something missing in the file whereas it was not the case.
This story is also telling of the fact that some specific classes of people are generally treated that way. According to the information acquired by Ali, Pakistanis are generally treated badly by the high ups in the government offices.
I can relate to Mr Ali in the sense of being treated ill by some authorities Irish Authorities, I would like to refer to a few incidents happened with me which could be connected to this sort of treatment with Pakistanis specifically.
One of them is just ongoing where I am being denied to sit in an educational institution on an Irish fee as per the rules set out by the Justice office. Which you can read here.
Another incident happened with me at my interview for asylum stage where I was discredited on the basis of a document issued by the state administrative office of an EU country. I mean letters issued by the state administration offices of any EU country are the most trustworthy documents, specifically when they are numbered and dated along with all the contact details of that office for confirmation purposes. If such kind of a document is looked at with suspicion, this sort of attitude can be construed in many ways.
I don't know this kind of behaviour is targeted towards Pakistanis only as Mr Ali assessed the matter or it is general behaviour towards everyone without discrimination. I mean if humiliation is done without discrimination, even then it’s not right but if it is targeted to a specific class of people then it's the worst form of it.
The original account as narrated by Mr. Ali can be read here.
http://cassandravoices.com/society/the-torture-of-my-irish-citizenship-application/
This is appalling. But rest assured the kind of treatment you got is not an isolated case. It happens to asylum seekers from all backgrounds.
ReplyDeleteI always maintain that rather than just fighting direct provision, the system needs to be opposed and the incompetence of the IPO is something no one ever talks about. It makes,my blood boil.
Very True Roose. I will put up a blog post soon about the various kind of responses i Received on this blog post. This blog post successfully created a reactionary response among many people and that response is quite telling of the fact of some biased environment towards asylum seekers. I was really shocked to see that kind of response. I never believed the statistics of NGO's about that prevailing bias but now I feel as if I was wrong about that. Thanks very much though for every bit of effort you are doing to give all the support you can despite dealing with your personal hardships. I really appreciate it. In this kind of biased environment, people like you are blessing. Thanks and Best of Luck for finding a new house soon after getting the eviction notice. Your kind of courage is required to elevate one from an ordinary to a great human being. Stay blessed.
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