A new centre has been opened in Dublin to help migrant workers to cope economically, socially and culturally with working here.
Father Bobby Gilmore, a Columban missionary priest and one of the founders of the Migrant Information Centre in Beresford Place, said at its official opening that the centre would work with other agencies, including Government bodies, to ensure that the rights of migrants were observed.
He said the initiative began when people started coming here from parts of the world where the Columbans and Redemptorists had been working.
Priests and nuns from these orders worked with them and were asked questions about their rights, to which they did not always know the answers. It was decided that the best thing was to open an information and advice centre.
"If we're looking for people to come to work here, are we looking for just hands and bodies, or for people with lives and rights?" he asked, recalling how Irish navvies were regarded when working in Britain.
Ms Stacia Crickley, chairwoman of the National Committee on Racism and Multiculturalism, said that there was a contrast between what people expected for themselves when they emigrated and what they were prepared to offer others. There was an obligation to make migration into the EU as fair as possible.
Mr Michael O'Sullivan, who works at the centre, told The Irish Times that the kind of issues which had already been seen at the centre included problems with the validation process for Filipina nurses and the laying off of agricultural workers before they could acquire rights under labour law.
He said that while the nurses were fully qualified, they had to undergo a validation process when they came here to work.
There was no possibility of appeal if they failed this validation, and the experience of the centre was that such a failure could be on an arbitrary basis.
Filipina nurses often came here with their husbands, he said, who were not allowed to work, even though many of them were highly qualified.
This contrasted with the situation in Britain where the husbands of Filipina nurses recruited by the health service were allowed work.
He said that Latvian agricultural workers, here on a yearly work visa, were often laid off just short of 12 months after they started. This was a way of employers ensuring that they did not acquire rights under Irish employment law.