New York Woman’s Death Illustrates Ireland’s Asylum Trap

The first and only job for Irish police in the death of New York woman Jamey Carney should be solving her murder. So why play politics and issue statements that they’re “concerned the killing may be seized upon by the US far-right and political figures intent on stirring racial tensions in the Republic”?

Perhaps they’re worried that it illustrates the self-destructive chaos of Western asylum policies.

Carney moved to Killarney in 2021. There, she met a Jordanian, Ahmad Al-Saqar (or “Alsaqer”).

Al-Saqar walked over the border from Northern Ireland into the Irish Republic and applied for asylum in 2024, but his claim was rightly rejected. He had already been in Turkey, France, and the United Kingdom—all of them safe states outside Jordan where he could have claimed asylum. Al-Saqar was taking advantage of Ireland’s open border, low standards, and welfare benefits. This is called “asylum shopping.”

Despite his asylum rejection, Al-Saqar—described as a staunch pro-Palestinian activist who reportedly met Carney at a pro-Palestine rally—was allowed to remain in Ireland. At the time of her death, they were reportedly married, and he was already hitting her up for money.

Al-Saqar’s ultimate goal was evidently to get into the United States. He would have felt right at home doing a master’s at Columbia or working at Democratic Socialists of America headquarters. Or in cities like New York and Seattle, whose mayors share his anti-Israel views. Or in Congress, where some lawmakers do too.

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Al-Saqar fled Ireland before Carney’s body was discovered, initially traveling to Turkey. From there, he went to Jordan, where he was arrested by their Public Security Directorate.

The only basis for Al-Saqar to claim asylum in Ireland would be a fear of being persecuted in his home country. His returning to Jordan so quickly is proof that he never had any fear to begin with. And any prosecuting attorney would likely seize on it as the action of a man who had something to do with Carney’s death.

This case illustrates how Western countries, including Ireland and the U.S., are held hostage by their adherence to an outdated asylum system that works against national interests.

After World War II, the U.N. agreed to a framework for protecting refugees, the 1951 Refugee Convention. They had the recent memory of millions persecuted and killed by Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia because of their race, religion, or political beliefs.

But for decades now, Western societies have been inundated by people seeking economic opportunity. Only a small percentage qualify for asylum, but most illegal arrivals or visa overstayers claim anyway so they can remain for years while their cases are decided. There is no penalty for fraudulent claims.

Ireland is in the midst of a mass migration never seen in its history, partly caused by so-called asylum-seekers crossing the open border with Northern Ireland. Up to 25% of Ireland’s population of 5.4 million is non-Indigenous. In 2023, Ireland rejected more than 65% of asylum applications, and the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) admitted that most applicants were economic migrants.

Around half of Irish asylum applicants are single males, many from countries with high rates of violence against women. Across Europe, statistics show that migrants from certain countries, many in the Middle East and Africa, commit violent crime at rates far higher than natives.

In Germany, immigrants are under 20% of the population but commit 40% of violent crime. In Sweden, 63% of convicted rapists are first or second-generation immigrants. According to the Irish Examiner, of the 12 women murdered in Ireland in 2022, five were killed by immigrants.

In the past decade, the number of asylum seekers housed by the Irish taxpayer has shot up by 650%, to over 30,000. Refugees now outnumber locals in Lisdoonvarna, and Ballyhaunis, Ballymahon, and Edgeworthstown all have over a third non-Irish residents. All over the country, shelters are being set up in villages, and in some, asylum seekers outnumber locals. Dundrum House hotel in Tipperary held up to 277 asylum seekers in a village of only 200.

Europe accepts endless illegal economic migration, which it launders through its asylum policy. Asylum approval rates in Europe are too high to expect smooth assimilation, and the deportations of those refused are too low to discourage fraud. During the Biden administration, the U.S. positively encouraged a similar flow over our southern border.

What will be the result of this asylum flood?

In the long run, Irish and other Europeans will become ethnic minorities in their own countries. They already are in some of Europe’s largest cities, such as Brussels and London. In the near term, because the bulk of the new arrivals are low-skilled, if employable at all, their families will add to the already unsustainable fiscal burdens of health care, pensions, and welfare payments.

The tragic story of Jamey Carney illustrates the dilemma of Europe’s Leftist-supported asylum trap. Absent reforms to end economic migration under the guise of asylum, the future is bleak.