Northern Ireland Emigrants Invisible Under Proposed Bill of Rights

Human rights activists are urging Northern Ireland secretary Shaun Woodward to review the new proposed bill of rights. The emigrant workers and ethnic minorities will pretty much become invisible under this new bill for Norther Ireland.

The Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities has complained that up to 80,000 foreign emigrants are excluded from the current draft of the bill of rights. In the present form, the bill recognizes the existence of only two communities in Northern Ireland. These two communities are the Protestant/unionist and the Catholic/nationalist.

The Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities director, Patrick Yu, claimed that, apart from the right to vote, there were no other guaranteed rights specifically for emigrants contained in the document. The Hong Kong born human rights activist said protection of emigration rights was vital, given the upsurge in racism across Northern Ireland. Just last year, up to 70 Romamanians, including women and children, fled Northern Ireland for Romania after their homes came under attack in south Belfast.

Yu went on to write to the Northern Ireland Secretary, asking him to order a major review of the consultation document on the bill. He also called for economic rights for emigrants to be built into any future revised bill.

Patrick Yu noted that the emigration population in Norther Ireland is ever growing. Right now emigrants and ethnic minorities are chronically unrepresented in the local economy and society. He said that the ethic minorities make up only 0.2 percent of Northern Ireland's civil service. There is no inclusiveness in the current draft for the bill of rights. There are up to 80,000 emigrant workers and their families in the province, and yet under the bill of rights, they are simply invisible.