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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
16September/October 2015
W
ITH all the attention on responses to the new refugee
crisis, it is important not to forget those festering
within the existing asylum-seekers’ system, Direct
Provision.
The Working Group on Direct Provision and Protections
Process deliberated for over six months and published a
report in June with recommendations. All of these
recommendations were reached by consensus by all members
of the Group. This included the heads of all the relevant gov-
ernment departments. All members of the Group engaged
with the process. The recommendations are achievable,
clearly costed, would go a significant way to resolving some of
the most significant flaws in the asylum-protection system.
The sole response of the Minister for Justice, beyond
describing the report as “food for thought”, has been to estab-
lish a so-called ‘Transitional Task Force’, whose principal role
would seem to be the production of an information booklet for
those currently exiting Direct Provision. This response is tan-
tamount to a grand betrayal.
In July , the government, in its Statement of Priorities,
committed to “treat asylum seekers with the humanity they
deserve”.
In the months that followed, asylum-seekers up and down
the country came out of the shadows and publicly protested
about the conditions that they and their children have had to
endure for years on end.
These protests reflected the oppression of a vulnerable pop-
ulation now seeking to assert their fundamental human
rights.
For the first time in years the voices of asylum-seekers
shaped the discourse on Direct Provision and shone a light on
what life was really like inside one on the biggest institutional
settings in the country. This was a pivotal moment, and one
that acted as a catalyst for the State to come good on its prom-
ise. Thus the Working Group on Direct Provision and the
Protection Process was established and charged with recom-
mending reforms to “show greater respect for the dignity of
the persons in the system”.
A critical aspect of the work of the Group was the direct
engagement with residents in Direct Provision. Many were
reluctant to participate, having a mistrust in the State that
had been the architect of such a dehumanising system. Nasc
and other NGOs, as members of the Working Group, encour-
aged asylum-seekers to participate and they took up this call.
In powerful and compelling testimonies, the Group heard
what life is like inside the Magdalene Laundries of our time.
“The Direct Provision System had been a prison to many
people, undeservedly serving unending sentences”, “as we kill
the time the time kills us” and “people are made feel like crim-
inals whilst exercising their human right to seek refuge”.
Enforced idleness, lack of personal autonomy and privacy,
mental illness and poverty featured strongly in the
testimonies.
Children, many of whom were born in Ireland, said that
they felt different from their peers and they longed to be
accepted as “normal”. They wanted “sleepovers”, “friends”, to
see their dad working or “to eat food made by my mam”, or
“go to Centra”. For some the pressure was too much to bear:
“we cry we are not happy like this. In school I keep thinking
about this with teary eyes”. These voices informed the recom-
mendations of the Group.
Now we have finally agreed to take , refugees outside
the Direct Provision system, is it too much to ask of one of the
richest countries in Western Europe, with one of the smallest
asylum-seeking populations, to adequately provide for the
very basic needs of our asylum seeking families and children,
some of whom have lived in the system for over a decade? The
lack of response from the Minister for Justice indicates that
yes, it must be too much to ask. This is a betrayal of the trust
of asylum-seekers and their families who were urged to trust
in the process and who believed that this time it would be
different.
The Minister must now implement immediately the key
recommendations of the Working Group. Otherwise the
report of the Working Group is no more than a cynical exer-
cise. This includes: increasing the Direct Provision Allowance
to €. for an adult and €. for a child; granting resi-
dency to those in the system for five years or more; extending
the remit of the Ombudsman and the Ombudsman for Chil-
dren to cover Direct Provision; and introducing cooking
facilities in the centres.
These actions might go some way in restoring the faith of
asylum seekers that our government is willing to show greater
respect for their dignity and treat them with the compassion
and humanity that is their right.
The failure to act will add the further injustice of creating a
process that gave asylum-seekers a glimmer of hope only to
have that hope extinguished for political expediency. •
Fiona Finn is CEO of Nasc which links migrants and ethnic
minorities to their rights; and was a member of the Working Group.
www.nascireland.org
Frances Fitzgerald ignores report on Magdalene Laundries of our time. By Fiona Finn
NEWS Migrants
As we kill the
time the time
kills us…. In
school I keep
thinking about
this with teary
eyes
“
Cynicism on Direct Provision
September/October 2015 17
