THE OIREACHTAS health committee will invite officials at the Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) to a hearing next month to address concerns over the welfare of asylum seekers at State centres.
The move comes as the agency has set a new deadline of August 31st for 70 asylum seekers to transfer from Mosney to an accommodation centre in Dublin.
Committee chairman Seán O’Fearghail TD said yesterday the committee had written to the RIA and the Departments of Justice and Health to express concerns at the “cramped and inadequate conditions” for people in some direct-provision asylum centres.
He hoped agency officials would appear before the committee late next month to address concerns about the mental health impact on those people “left in limbo” for years in the system.
Members of the health committee visited Mosney and another hostel in Monaghan last month. They found conditions at the Monaghan centre to be inadequate and have also raised concerns about the RIA’s decision to transfer 109 people from Mosney to Dublin.
“RIA has a responsibility and a right to move people but these people also have a right to proper communication taking place, particularly when people have significant medical conditions,” said Mr O’Fearghail, who noted doctors at Mosney have raised major concerns about transferring patients with communicable diseases.
The agency issued the 109 transfer orders to Mosney residents last month, giving people only a few days’ notice to move. At least 70 of the 109 residents are still refusing to move from Mosney, citing a combination of medical problems, family connections and not wanting to share rooms in Dublin.
In a recent letter sent to the 70 asylum seekers in Mosney who are refusing to move, the RIA has set a new deadline of August 31st for them to transfer. Each letter says the agency has not received any medical representations from the individual concerned, and asks them to tell the RIA when they propose to move to the Dublin hostel, Hatch Hall, by the end of this week.
The Irish Refugee Council, an NGO that lobbies on behalf of refugees, met the asylum seekers affected by the transfers ordered by the RIA this week.
Sue Conlan, chief executive of the council, said it was disappointed at the decision to go ahead with the transfers. “The letters from RIA do not take people’s individual circumstances into account, for example whether they have family living nearby or their medical situation.
“They are also standard letters sent to all residents. For example, they wrongly state medical representations have not been made – in some cases they have or are in the process of being made. RIA has not adequately addressed all the humanitarian issues raised by the residents.”
The RIA said last night that correspondence issued to certain asylum seekers at Mosney in the past week had set out once again that they must transfer to alternative accommodation and that remained the case.