Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)

I wish to seek the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 31 to raise a matter of national importance, namely, why 41 Afghans, of which seven are minors, including a number of boys of 16 years old, must put their lives in jeopardy by going on hunger strike at St. Patrick's Cathedral to highlight the secretive and erratic process operated by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform in our name, which processes asylum seekers to this State and which lacks the openness and transparency needed to ensure troubled human beings are offered proper dignity and receive natural justice; and the need for the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to review the asylum process from a humanitarian point of view. I am glad these people have gone off thirst strike.

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