Ireland has become a multi-ethnic place but racial discrimination continues to pose a problem here, the president of the Irish Human Rights Commission, Maurice Manning, has said.
Speaking after the commission published a report on discrimination to mark International Human Rights Day, Mr Manning said severe cuts in funding for resources that monitor and combat racial abuse would only compound the problem.
Mr Manning said people seeking asylum in the State were being made to wait for too long for their applications to be processed.
“This needs to be tackled urgently as the long stay in hostels, prohibition on working and social isolation are among the causes of worrying levels of poor mental health among asylum seekers,” he said.
The commission also said human rights safeguards designed to protect migrant workers and their families, especially those in the hospitality industry, agriculture and women in domestic settings, were insufficient.
It said Travellers had experienced racial discrimination here for generations but were yet to be recognised as an ethnic minority.
Meanwhile, in a statement to mark the day, the International Trade Union Confederation said the economic crisis had meant further erosion of basic rights for tens of millions of working people.
“Respect for workers’ rights in particular is being undermined as working people are increasingly forced to bear the burden of the global economic crisis, in contravention of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other UN and International Labour Organisation instruments,” the confederation said.
Separately, Amnesty International has asked the public to send messages of support and solidarity to victims of human rights violations across the world.
Amnesty said the initiative had potential to energise imprisoned activists - in countries such as Mexico, Iran and Israel - and had in the past encouraged decision-makers to change their minds.
Information about the campaign is available from www.amnesty.ie