With some four and a half thousand asylum cases pending at the Department of Justice the issue of refugees and their shelter in Ireland is starting to loom large with the populace.
Not least in Ennis which with Shannon on its doorstep as a gateway for foreign escapees has actually got its own provincial office of the Irish Refugee Council.
Asylum-seekers can be mere statistics until you begin to see them day by day in your street, supermarket or church. And then they become real, very real people.
The small band of parishioners from St Columba's Church, Ennis will testify to that. Among the 180 refugees collected in Ennis from all over the world, is the Bisuga family from Nigeria who are worshipping Anglicans.
Muyiwa Bisuga and his wife Remi have escaped with their two children Wunmi, aged seven and Lekan aged four. Theirs is a very particular story and a horrific one and the current logjam in dealing with requests for permanent residency here leaves them feeling extremely vulnerable to danger back home.
Indeed they even escaped west from Dublin where they felt they were still under threat from Nigerian elements linked not with politics but with a religious cult which Muyiwa's own father is involved with.
The grandfather, enforcing the cult's practice of circumcision of children, including girls was responsible for the death of Muyiwa and Remi's first child, a girl aged six through complications following such a ceremony enforced upon her against their will. Muyiwa, a Merchant Naval Officer by profession, explained 'After that we vowed never to allow such a dreadful thing to happen to any of our children again. So when we had our second child, a girl again, our feelings have been that of joy and sadness because of what might befall her if precautionary measures were not taken.
Indeed while I was away at sea, on one of my extended trips during July of 1997, my father who lived in the same compound as my wife, made another attempt with his sect to circumcise Wunmi but Remi managed with the help of her senior brother to escape the country with the children and when I got the news I joined them'. Muyiwa speaks of the bondage they have been under but also of their consolation in God and their commitment to prayer.
He and his ex-schoolteacher wife Remi, not only have good English but are good communicators. Muyiwa is seen as a valuable facilitator among other asylum seekers by the staff of the Ennis Refugee Centre.
He is involved in Development Education programmes in schools and groups and other organisations.
He continues to appeal to the authorities and anybody who can bring influence on behalf of refugees for help in obtaining permission to stay here. 'Most asylum seekers in Ireland are highly skilled and well educated. They want to be self-reliant, rather than depend on the government. If given the opportunity they will make a valuable contribution to Irish society'.
His comments coincide with a recent speech in Dublin by the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson. Referring to the application backlog, the former President said that Ireland needed a policy 'infused with generosity'.
Mrs Robinson urged people to look beyond mere statistics and realise that each asylum-seeker is an individual with his or her own hopes and dreams'.
Welcoming these comments, Muyiwa Bisuga appealed to government, the media and the public to view asylum-seekers, not as a threat, but as potential positive contributors to Irish society.