A chara, – The announcement by the Minister for Justice, Frances Fitzgerald, of the Government’s decision to establish a working group next month to review the operation of the direct provision system is very welcome. While a review of direct provision conditions is important, its remit must extend to the biggest single issue facing asylum seekers, which is the excessive length of time spent awaiting a final determination of their claim.
One in three asylum seekers has been waiting at least five years since first applying for asylum in Ireland. One in 10 has been waiting seven or more years, during which time they cannot work and endure a de facto barrier to third level and further education, while living on €19.10 per week.
But fixing a broken asylum system is not easy. Successive governments have promised and failed to introduce a single procedure where all applications for different forms of protection are lodged together. The announced fast-tracking of this long-awaited legislation will constitute a significant step forward. But a single procedure will not address the situation of the 1,600 asylum seekers stuck for more than five years at different stages of the asylum process. In particular, it will not resolve the impasse arising because of the large number of asylum cases before the courts for judicial review.
In the light of the backlog and the lack of available court resources it is estimated that it will take many years to resolve the existing caseload. Thus it is critical that the terms of reference for the proposed working group include identifying durable solutions for applicants stuck in the asylum process, who have been “living in limbo” for years. – Is mise le meas,
EUGENE QUINN,
Jesuit Refugee
Service Ireland,
Limerick
A chara, – Over the years there has been a plethora of reports, many funded by the Government, there have been conferences, academic courses, films, newspaper articles, TV programmes, legal cases, reports of international human rights organisations and videos similar to those currently being aired by Carl O'Brien on the Irish Times website. Yet people still linger in these appalling direct provision centres. People should have their own homes, should be allowed to work or have an education or claim normal social welfare. Their children should have the normal life a child deserves There is no justification for this system and it must stop now. Surely we are better than this? – Is Mise,
GERTRUDE COTTER,
Ballyregan,
Co Cork
Sir, – Some of the comparisons between Ireland and Sweden in their dealings with asylum seekers (Lives in Limbo, August 12th) are quite misleading. It is said that in Sweden “Those who apply for asylum are immediately allowed to work”. At an EMN Ireland conference in Dec 2012, a senior official of the Swedish Migration Board made it clear that, in fact, that right was conditional on the asylum seeker co-operating with the authorities in the matter of establishing their ID, 90 per cent having provided no such documentation. The great majority prefer not to co-operate and as a consequence only 19 per cent work. The most important reform of the system will be the single procedure and Ms Fitzgerald is to be congratulated for facilitating this. – Yours, etc,
ÁINE Ní CHONAILL,
Immigration Control
Platform,
PO Box 6469,
Dublin 2
Sir, – Carl O’Brien’s excellent reports on the subsistence conditions which people fleeing their own countries have been forced to endure here show how urgent a change in Government thinking is on the right to seek paid work. How could we, as a society, have tolerated this cruelty for so long without protesting? How can our Government not hang its head at being paired in this infamy with Lithuania, a much poorer country, as the only two European states still refusing asylum seekers the right to earn a wage. Shame on us all! – Yours, etc,
ELISABETH GUINNESS,
The Coppins,
Dublin 18-