Direct Provision ; Will Common Sense Ever Prevail?

by Michelle Mitchell

 In my previous article for ROI against Racism I spoke of Direct Provision and its implications for the lives of those who are forced reply on it as a system for survival in Ireland. As this is very current issue in the media at the moment I would like to address the issue of the cost of direct provision in Ireland. Early this week The Irish Examiner published that ‘Direct Provision Contractors receive €5m each year in state fees’. Therefore in total last year Direct Provision has cost the state €53m to support the 4,364 people who rely on it. There is no denying that this is a substantial amount of money for any government to spend but particularly if the country they are running is in economic recession as Ireland is at the moment. Therefore why the government is choosing to invest such an amount of money in a system that dehumanizes and essentially imprisons people, I simply cannot understand. Surely this money could be invested more wisely and with sincere goals for equality and social change in mind.

The lack of available rental properties is one reason why asylum seekers, who despite being granted Irish citizenship are being forced to survive on Direct Provision. Therefore the logical solution to a problem such as this is for the government to increase spending in social housing schemes and rent supplement along with increasing rent supplement thresholds. Now, I am not an economist but I do foresee that if this were to occur, what would transpire are many long term advantages for both the person in receipt of direct provision and the government alike. As a sociologist what I can predict is that when an asylum seeker no longer relies on direct provision and has a fixed abode they are then in a position to secure employment and up skilling opportunities which they will utilize (despite some racially motivated ideologies). This in effect increases their assimilation and integration in Irish society and hence the racial social divide that currently exists is in a prime condition to weaken and narrow. In terms of parliamentarian benefits, economic contributions in the form of taxes and less overall reliance on the Irish government for living support from ex direct provision recipients can only serve to boost the Irish economy which consequently provides numerous advantages for the government.

Speaking this week, Minister for State for New Communities Culture and Equality, Aodhán O Riordáin described the implementation of Direct Provision as a ‘regrettable periods in Irish History’, publically admitting that this system does not work. Protests were also held this week with texts on placards from asylum seekers stating that the want ‘the right to integrate’, believing that direct provision does not allow them to do this. Thus I would like to conclude this piece by proposing that instead of contractors earning a large income on a suppressive system by receiving money from a government that claims poverty every day, which this money is invested into providing homes for asylum seekers. As previously stated I argue that this can be achieved by a restructuring of social housing and rent supplement policies. Perhaps the large amount of “ghost estates” that need completion would be an area for consideration to facilitate this?

Abolish Direct Provision

by Bernadette D'Arcy


Introducing cosmetic changes to the Direct Provision system will not be tolerated by the the people in DP nor by their supporters. The whole system stinks and is held together by corruption as the pockets of lots of catering companies and building owners are lined every year. I am hazarding a guess that not one center owner has ever spent a week living in a room in their own room under the conditions that the people living in DP have to suffer. Prisoners get early parole for good behavior from prison and DP is a prison so I think the residents should be freed for their exemplary good behavior. Children should not be residing in these prisons which the government calls “HOME”Child of female prisoner


17. (1) A child, of less than twelve months of age, of a female prisoner may be admitted to a prison and remain with the mother to facilitate breast feeding until the child has reached twelve months of age.


(2) In the case of a prisoner who gives birth to a child during the term of her imprisonment, the child may be admitted to a prison and remain with the mother in prison, until the child has reached twelve months of age.[220]


I am not saying separate families. What I am saying is abolish DP and bulldoze down every building so that they can never again be used in such a fashion for financial gain by so few from the suffering and misery of so many




To read more of Bernadette's work check out her blog https://berehichioya2.wordpress.com/  You can also find her on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Speaking-From-Experience/389776217846597

Trapped in Direct Provision

By Michelle Mitchell

It is a well known fact that there is a serious housing crisis in Ireland at the moment, and as a result rental properties are becoming increasingly difficult to obtain and monthly prices becoming less affordable. The issues in relation to housing in Ireland are ones that seem to have affected people through all of the social class divides. Nevertheless whilst I do acknowledge that the housing crisis has had a profound negative affect on people from all walks of life, it has to be stated that the consequences of these effects vary and there are some social class groupings in society that have suffered far greater than others.

I would like to therefore draw you attention to the matter of asylum seekers in Ireland and how this scarcity of rental properties has affected their quest to find a home here after being granted Irish citizenship.  Firstly I would to state my reasons as to why I have chosen to highlight this issue above all else in relation to the housing crisis. I believe that it is an area for concern on a human rights level that we as a nation have chosen to ignore. When we think of the property market at the moment we tend to think of people losing their homes and rental increases, however what the Irish media has failed to do was to adequately provide information and draw attention to our new citizens that we are silently keeping suppressed and technically homeless by forcing them to live here under direct provision.

In the Irish Times this week, it was announced that after the Irish government granted over 600 asylum seekers citizenship in Ireland they are now unable to secure rental properties thus having to remain under direct provision once more.  Currently the Irish Refugee Council are actively campaigning to end direct provision for asylum seekers in Ireland as they feel it is a system that leaves people languishing for years. However the government have described their willingness to allow asylum seekers to remain on direct provision as an act of humanity. However asylum seekers disagree and are vigorously imploring with the Irish government to end this system of institutionalised living which results in people having no where to call home. It sees thousands of people including children, existing in our society instead of living in a country which held of the promise and the hope of a chance of at improved living conditions for them. It refuses them the opportunity to integrate and assimilate into Irish society and thus in many respects it denies them an identity that they so truly deserve. Having to rely on direct provision restricts them in becoming active and concerned members of society and hence they remain alienated from the environment around them. This in effect allows xenophobia and prejudice to being to develop.  Direct provision also confines the extent to which asylum seekers can flourish in Irish society as without a home and a decent living wage, asylum seekers are limited in their choices surrounding their involvement in society.

Although I have just merely touched on some of the many negative implications for asylum seekers living under direct provision, I believe the problem of not being able to secure rental property despite being granted citizenship in Ireland is that of a major concern. It is a matter of equality and basic human rights. If this problem is not dealt with as a matter of priority by the government we are effectively giving these people a life sentence in limbo. We are denying them to be fully active Irish citizens that other Irish people enjoy. We are subjecting their children to a life of insecurity and confinement which will undoubtedly result in a social divide amongst their peers and needless to say severe emotional issues. All of which have been mentioned in interviews by individuals relying on direct provision.  Therefore I would  like to conclude this piece by reiterating a previous point I made; the government must act now to allow rental properties to become more obtainable for people on low incomes or social welfare payments. Whether this is in the form of reviewing the rent allowance welfare policy or making more houses available on the social housing scheme, the solution is there and must be found promptly and dealt with accordingly.




You can learn more about shelly on twitter @ShellyMitchy https://twitter.com/ShellyMitchy

Not the Elephant in the Room Anymore: Direct Provision System and Deportations

by Memet Uludag
 
Do you remember the story of Somali asylum seeker Mohamed Sleyum Ali? Irish Times reported it: In March 2014 he was deported from Ireland, attacked and left to die within hours of his arrival in Tanzania…
 
One day he was in Dublin, soon after he was fighting for his life.
 
What do you think of this story?
 
Suspicious?
 
Horrific?
 
Sad? 
 
Unbelievable?
 
Whatever you call this story, it was definitely a preventable one.
In 2014, a young person didn’t need to die because of his immigration status or because of his nationality or the asylum regime in Ireland.
 
And if a person’s life (not just his/her standard wellbeing or basic safety, but his/her life) depends on immigration laws, the person’s nationality or immigration status then there is something else in this story: Institutional racism.
 
 
DEPORTATIONS
Whatever technical debates, some in the state bureaucracy and in the business of ‘immigration’ may hold on deportations, there is a lot more to it than just the cold jargon of legal technicalities and a state-centric view of the deportation system.
 
Deportation, the enforced removal of failed asylum seekers, is a “last resort”, according to the Department of Justice. It says that “more than 22,500 orders have been made since 1999, but just over 4,700 have been enforced”.
 
This seems like a positive situation where, looking at the numbers, four in 5 deportation orders were not carried out. But that’s not the full story at all. If numbers matter, one has to look at the wider picture and at great many sets of numbers before applauding the single and misleading deportation statistics above.
 
The whole end-to-end journey of seeking asylum, applying for refugee status, the process of dealing with refugee applications, the outcome, options for applicants based on the outcome, appeals and deportations are not just extremely complicated (as far as the humanitarian process  of seeking asylum is concerned) but also not transparent and not democratic.
 
There are many genuine personal, legal and logistical reasons to why not all of the 22,500 deportations orders were not processed, but the goodwill of the state doesn’t rank high in this list of reasons. Furthermore 4,700 deportations are not a small number to ignore and if you include the ‘Dublin II Regulation’ numbers (The objective of this Regulation is to identify the EU member state responsible for examining an asylum application and send the applicants to that member state if he/she entered EU via that member state before arriving to the country of asylum application) the ‘deportation’ numbers would be much higher. EU has also signed Readmission Agreements with Euro-peripheral countries, such as Turkey, to deport asylum seekers who arrive to EU from these agreement counties.
 
But the devil is not just in the numerical and secretive process of deportations. One has to appreciate the asylum-refugee application system as a whole to understand its truly inhumane and racist nature.
One also has to understand what happens to people who are deported back to their countries into to the hands of despotic murderous regimes. For many asylum seekers this means life or death.
 
 
ASYLUM-REFUGEE REGIME IN IRELAND: ALL ROADS LEAD TO DIRECT PROVISION SYSTEM
 
We all know too well the conditions in the Direct Provision Centres in Ireland and the inhumanity of the Direct Provision System (DPS) as whole. But the situation in Ireland is not limited to the horrors of the DPS. While the DPS is simply a holding/staging system for asylum seekers with the state having full powers over the lives of people, the process leading to DPS is even scarier.
 
According to the 2013 report published by Eurostat, the official European Union statistics agency, “Ireland comes last when it comes to granting refugee status to asylum seekers, below even Malta which has a population of just over 500,000”.
 
Some media reactions to the findings of this report were as follows:
 

Irish welcome doesn’t apply to asylum seekers or refugees, (Irish Central)

 

Cead mile failte – but not if you’re fleeing for your life (Irish Independent)

 

Ireland rejects more asylum seekers than most EU countries (journal.ie)

 

According to EUROSTAT in 2013 the EU average for granting refugee status was 25.2 per cent while Ireland scored a miserable low of 8 per cent for the first instance decisions. 
 
Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner (ORAC) is the state agency dealing with the refugee applications. Its role is “to investigate applications from persons seeking a declaration for refugee status and to issue appropriate recommendations to the Minister for Justice and Equality”
Surprisingly, ORAC has website has very detailed statistical details in their annual reports. It is evident from ORAC data that Ireland is indeed a mean host country when it comes to granting refugee status to asylum seekers.
 
A summary based on ORAC data shows us a bleak picture over the past 12 years and explains why the DPS has become such a critical entity in the wider asylum-refugee regime in Ireland.

With this absolutely huge rejection rate, many asylum seekers are left with no choice but to appeal the decision of ORAC. Appeals are processed by Refugee Appeals Tribunal and this process is not a very friendly one either.


IRELAND DOESN’T BELIEVE YOU!

A report published by the Irish Refugee Council (Difficult to believe: the assessment of asylum claims in Ireland October 17, 2012) has found damming facts about the refugee process and procedures in Ireland and is calling for an urgent review of the refugee application process.

The report examines the asylum process in Ireland with a systematic review of documents which form the basis of what is known as the `Refugee Status Determination' procedure in Ireland, in order to get a better understanding of why the majority of applications for refugee status in this country are refused. The UK acceptance rate is four times that of the average in Ireland. The evidence obtained in this study suggests that the process itself is responsible and, particularly where the Tribunal (RAC) is concerned, there are reasons to believe that there is a ‘culture of disbelief’ that informs the approach that some Tribunal Members take.

Sue Conlan, the CEO of the Irish Refugee Council said, “What disturbs me about our findings is the fact that many people who appear to have legitimate claims appear not to be receiving a fair examination of their claim and are as a result being denied protection [...]”.

Prof Rosemary Byrne, Director of the Centre for Post Conflict Justice, Trinity College Dublin said: “There is cause for grave concern about Ireland’s protection record for refugees. This research provides a critical insight into very straightforward and cost effective ways the asylum system can, and should be, strengthened to ensure that those coming to Ireland with a well-founded fear of persecution in their country of origin can be guaranteed a fair assessment of their claims”.


THE IRISH ASYLUM-REFUGEE REGIME CAN BE SUMMARISED AS

Ireland is not receiving a huge percentage of the European asylum seekers. This country is not sinking under the weight of asylum seekers!

The percentage of asylum seekers who are granted refugee statuses is extremely low, (The 2002-2014 average is just 6 per cent).

The very high percentage of rejections forces the asylum seekers into long/complex appeal process.

Many appeals are rejected by Refugee Appeals Tribunal due to an institutionally dismissive culture in the state.

The appeals process is not transparent.

As part of this high percentage rejection application and appeal regime Direct Provision System is used as a staging area where asylum seekers have no real control of their lives and their own future.
Direct Provision Systems functions as a locking mechanism for asylum seekers and it feeds the deportation regime. Asylum seekers live in constant fear of deportation.

The overall process of asylum-refugee system in Ireland is inhumane and state-centric rather than focusing on protecting vulnerable people.


WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE?

The Direct Provision System is beyond repair and has hurt enough people. It must be ended.
All Asylum seekers in Direct Provision System should be granted permanent leave and residency.
All Asylum seekers should be given the right to work and education, like all other citizens.
Ireland should declare an end to deportations and process all pending asylum applications and grant asylum seekers permanent residency.

The overall refugee application process must be changed completely and a humanitarian, open, transparent and care-oriented system should be put in place.

Migrants fleeing war zones, disasters, despotic regimes should have free-safe-legal passage into Europe and easy ways to apply for asylum.Ireland has the capacity, capability and the means to look after the suffering people. It must also use all platforms in the EU to change the current border control policies.

End the Readmission agreement.
EU to significantly assist Syrian refugees and accept greater number of Syrian refugees rather than shutting the borders and letting migrants die at sea.


You can find more of Memet's writing on http://minordetailsnews.net/ and on twitter @Memzers https://twitter.com/Memzers