On Sunday’s The Week in Politics the leader of the Social Democrats, Holly Cairns, posed the question “Who is Botswana safe for?”
Well, Botswanans mostly, it would appear. When Gript asked the relevant Ministry in that country about the comments Cairns had made, we received a strong statement serving as a reminder of Botswana’s full commitment to human rights and public record on same.
Cairns attempted to justify her wish to include Botswana among the world’s hellholes (from which one could claim asylum) by riffing about how maybe it might not be safe “if you are gay in a country, if you are an activist, if you’re a member of a trade union.”
"Who is Botswana safe for?"
Woke Social Democrats Leader Holly Cairns on immigration and rejecting poll results showing people think we have reached a tipping point pic.twitter.com/errbqAFkLZ
— Irishman (@IrishmanIRL) February 11, 2024
Is Botswana unsafe for people who are gay? Or who are “activists” (whatever that means) or trade union members?
No, it is not, and the international community agrees that it is not.
In 2022, Botswana was the most democratic state in the entire continent of Africa, and ranked 32nd in the entire planet – just below Ireland’s fellow EU state Slovenia, and just above another EU member state Malta.
I don’t recall that we had too many people from Valetta or Ljubljana arriving in Dublin airport claiming that they should not be sent home after their holliers.
According to Transparency International, in 2020 Botswana was not only the least corrupt of any country in Africa, but was on a similar ranking globally to Portugal and Slovenia. Would Deputy Cairns claim that we ought to be taking in refugees fleeing Portugal?
Nor is being gay likely to land a chap or lass in trouble with the state in Botswana as there are no laws banning sexual relations between persons of the same sex. That just leaves the trade unions.
Trade unions are completely free in Botswana and the country has signed up to the two core conventions of the International Labour Organisation on the right of free association and the right to organise in a union.
Despite this, the Irish state has in the past number of years been the chosen destination of some people claiming to be from Botswana and claiming that it was unsafe – as it appears Holly Cairns believes it to be.
This led to another absurd scenario in which of a total of 569 persons on the entire planet claiming asylum from Botswana in 2022, 370 or 65% made such an application here in Ireland.
In the latest statistical report from IPAS, persons claiming to be from Botswana seeking International Protection have been among the leading countries of origin.
This has led to a significant growth in the numbers of people from Botswana who are being accommodated by IPAS. The latest figure was 750 Botswanans – compared to 454 in February 2023, and just 95 at the beginning of 2022.
That’s a 7-fold increase in just over two years. Perhaps, word got out that Roderic O’Gorman had tweeted in many different languages that Ireland could be the land of milk and honey for anyone claiming asylum.
There is no reason connected to life in Botswana that there ought to have been such an exponential increase. Anyone who claims, as Holly Cairns appears to, that there is, needs to justify this beyond vague references to “activists” and “gay people.”. Otherwise, she is casting aspersions on a respected member of the international community, namely the African democracy of Botswana.
One of Botswana’s main problems, ironically, is illegal immigration. This has been a persistent issue along the 523 mile border with Zimbabwe where large numbers of Zimbabweans seek illegally to leave that shambling corrupt socialist kleptocracy – another former icon of sections of the Irish left and associated NGOs.
Botswana has deported tens of thousands of Zimbabweans over the past 15 years and managed to reduce the number of asylum applications from 179 in 2021, all of which were rejected, to exactly none in 2022.
That, in turn, underlines the total absurdity of the Irish state having received 973 applications from Zimbabweans in 2022, the highest number on the planet and 45% of the entire global figure.
Gript contacted the Honorary Consul for Botswana, Patrick O’Reilly, and he passed our request for a comment on Holly Cairn’s reference to Botswana to the Embassy in London who referred it to the Botswanan Ministry in Gaborone.
In its response, the Ministry stressed that “Botswana is a country which subscribes to the rule of law and good governance,” and one which “firmly believes in the inalienable rights of all people to enjoy their human rights and to live in peace and security.
“The Republic of Botswana remains fully committed to the promotion and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction on the basis of race, sex, language, or religion,” the Ministry added.
Lest there be any doubt about where Botswana stands on fundamental democratic rights – something which even the cursory knowledge that it has been governed through freely contested democratic elections since independence in 1966 would show – the statement pointed out that:
Botswana has no record of political prisoners nor reprisals against political parties opposed to the government. Freedom of association and speech as well as fundamental rights are enshrined in the country’s Constitution and the government’s commitment to constitutionality throughout the years has been unwavering.
Moreover, there is a clear separation of powers between the three arms of government: the Legislature, Judiciary, and the Executive and the country holds free and fair elections every five years since attaining independence in 1966.
Gript, in this age of misinformation, is happy to share with our readers a corrective to the misinformed and indeed insulting inferences to a country that has no questions to answer before self-appointed experts on things of which they would appear to know little.