Hundreds of immigrants living in Ireland want to bring relatives from abroad to live with them, it emerged today.
The Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) said one-third of the enquiries it received to its national information and support service in the 12-month period to July 2006 were related to family reunification issues.
More than 1,600 of the 4,800 people who contacted the ICI asked about how bring an immigrant's partner, children or other family members to Ireland.
Up to 140 different nationalities accessed the support service including migrants, legal practitioners and representatives of statutory and non-statutory organisations.
The ICI today released its annual trends report to coincide with International Migrants Day 2006.
ICI founder Sister Stanislaus Kennedy said: "The clear need for information on migrants rights shows that there is a huge amount of confusion and uncertainty for migrants and their families.
"However, organisations such as the Immigrant Council of Ireland are struggling to meet demand due to insufficient resources."
"These trends provide some insight into the fact that while not all migrants will stay, many people do want to settle here with their family for a long period and, if possible, permanently."
Sister Stanislaus pointed out that the forthcoming Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill provided a perfect opportunity for the Government to adopt a more co-ordinated, strategic, long-term approach to immigration and integration policies.
"There is also a need for planning on immigration issues to be interlinked with social, educational, economic and infrastructural planning," she explained.
Sister Stanislaus also underlined the fact that often people simply want to live a normal life with their family in Ireland and while many achieve this, others find that their human right to a family life is not protected.
PA