Ireland
McDowell opens conference on racism
Wednesday, 9 October 2002 17:17The Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, has opened a conference in Dublin aimed at heightening awareness of the problems of racism.
Mr McDowell said it was unfortunate that discussion on the subject invariably focused on asylum seekers.
He said it was wrong to blame the shortcomings of social services in dealing with the availability of housing on the arrival of asylum seekers.
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He also urged people to reject urban myths about alleged cash payments to asylum seekers. Mr McDowell said that failure to do this carried the real risk of promoting racist behaviour.
