Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I raise the case of Nadim Hussain, who is on his seventh day of hunger strike. He is living in Cork, where the Taoiseach comes from, and is on hunger strike because the International Protection Appeals Tribunal has affirmed a recommendation of the international protection officer that he should be refused a declaration as a refugee, which has the consequence of threatening him with deportation. He seeks the right to remain here as a refugee. He is a Muslim from India and said to breakingnews.ie:"If I go back to India I will be killed." There is reason for him to believe that because both of his parents were killed in 2018 and he came here in the context of that. They were killed in the context of anti-Muslim violence, which unfortunately is now commonplace in India and is whipped up by the chauvinist Modi regime. Ironically, one of the reasons he is being refused is that he cannot get written confirmation from the Indian police of the circumstances in which his parents died. Given the role of the Indian state in anti-Muslim violence, that is hardly surprising.

There are two issues here. One is the immediate issue of the hunger strike and the danger to his health and life and I appeal to the Government to reach out and make a phone call to Nadim today and promise to take his case seriously. The second issue is his right to remain here as a refugee, given the contribution he has made here, including working in security in hospitals, and given the threat he faces in India.

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