Yesterday approximately 120 Afghans protested outside Leinster House. They were recently refused asylum in the State and they are now asking the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform for leave to remain on humanitarian grounds. Many of them were opponents of the Taliban regime. On what basis is this cruel decision being made leading to them being threatened with deportation? Is it on the basis that Afghanistan is a supposed democracy, when everybody knows it is a war-torn zone? The past two months have been the bloodiest since the American invasion in 2001. Warlords rule large parts of the country with no respect for human rights or democracy. Women are routinely forced behind the burqa. Amnesty International states that those guilty of human rights abuses are entrenched in positions of power in Afghanistan. Afghanistan is a country where the United States Central Intelligence Agency runs some of its so-called "black sites", the secret prisons. Afghans and people from many other countries are snatched and incarcerated in these American gulags with no legal process or protection.

It is to the eternal shame of the Government that the same airplanes that have carried out those kidnappings have been allowed to use Shannon Airport as a facility. It is incredible that the Government accepts assurances from the United States Secretary of State, the person who——

Questions must be confined to one topical issue.

——was central to the construction of the monstrous lie on which the invasion of Iraq was launched, which the Taoiseach also said he believed. As we are entering the season when everybody in this country wants to have a feeling of peace, compassion and happiness, will the Taoiseach please enter into dialogue with the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform on behalf of these unfortunate people——

The time has concluded.

——who are distressed, worried and uncertain about their future and in the interests of human rights, give this handful of people from a war-torn country leave to remain in this State?

Hear, hear.

I am sure the Minister is well aware of the circumstances. We have completely transformed this area of Irish law and administration to meet all our international obligations. We will continue to address the challenges of migration management on an ongoing basis including tackling illegal immigration. We are putting a huge amount of resources into the provision of accommodation and into a system of fairness. The asylum determination system here compares with the best in the world in terms of fairness of decision making, determination structures, support services for asylum seekers including access to legal advice and to assistance. It provides comprehensive health, welfare, legal and translation services to applicants which are equal to the best anywhere. We have put in place three separate offices, the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner, the Refugee Appeals Tribunal and the Reception Integration Agency to deal with all aspects of asylum applications, from the initial decision to appeal to co-ordinate accommodation and other support needs. That process is open to these individuals and to every individual. Everyone who has looked at our system regards it as fair. If, as announced by the Deputy, these people may be subject to persecution and all else that the Deputy outlines, those issues will be considered in a fair manner, as are other cases.

Anybody is at risk of persecution if he or she is sent back to a country that is absolutely ravaged by war, internal strife, war lords and other evils. The Minister for Foreign Affairs was in the United States recently where he implored the United States Government for leave for some tens of thousands of our fellow citizens to remain in the US on human compassion grounds. I support that request. Those citizens should not be forced to come back here when they have made new lives for themselves in the US and they should be allowed to stay. Can we then not give to a few hundred people, who would be forced back to a much different situation than the Irish coming back here, leave to remain here and to make a new life, in the interests of human rights? As a further contribution to human rights for the Afghanis and everyone else, it is incumbent on the Taoiseach to investigate the CIA planes that have been using Shannon on their way to Guantanamo or Afghanistan. My last word on Afghanistan is that any country that tolerates secret CIA prisons where torture is practised is not a country to which this State should deport people or to which we should or send anybody back.

As I have stated, our system is extremely transparent and is open to appeal. In September the head of the UNHCR publicly congratulated us in New York on our system at the summit meeting and said it was extremely fair. That system takes into account and makes provision for people who have suffered torture or are suspected to have suffered torture or to have had their rights infringed. Our system has allowed large numbers of people to stay in Ireland who have been through the process. We have accommodated of the order of 35,000 people in recent years under our system. The cases the Deputy raised must go through the system. I will not make a judgment on them but if the issues the Deputy raised are true, their cases will be examined fairly. It is a fair system.