direct provision – Migrants in Ireland: Recent Episodes
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Today my first article appeared in the Opinion. I will share it with you here, as it doesn’t appear online. Refugees, what to expect, what to do and how to carry on from here. Ukraine is on our mind each day. Over 5000 refugees from the war-torn country have arrived in Ireland so far. As […]
The world has changed. Nothing is as it was. There is war in Europe, we feel unsafe, social media is creating divisions that would otherwise have been just differences of opinion but now create serious and sometimes dangerous divides. I am finding it hard to make sense of everything and I also feel I have […]
I have predicted it since the start of the pandemic, I have been on the 96 FM Opinion line several times with a warning. And now it has happened. The ultimate proof that Direct Provision is not keeping people safe: A very serious outbreak of COVID19 in the Kinsale Road Accommodation Centre. “The manager on […]
So over the years, I got to know a lot of people, mostly in Cork, but further afield as well. And what I noticed, once the right to work was there, was the serious challenges in finding work for people seeking international protection, but also finding the work they were qualified for.
Sylvain is used to making his own food, he doesn't like the food served in the hotel. There is no fridge in his room, he has no access to a kitchen, and is not allowed to have visitors. Soon the nice hotel became a true headache for Fabien. He was constantly hungry, and tried to eat what was served to him in cardboard boxes every day. But he just couldn't eat much. And to make matters worse, every time he worked a late shift, he would come home after 10 PM, when the kitchen was closed and had no food at all.
It was Wednesday night. A month into the Pandemic. I just got a call from agent SVP, telling me the goods would be delivered on Friday. After one failed attempt, we could not afford to miss the opportunity again. I called Nicole and told her that the delivery would happen on Friday at 3 PM. […]
And then my mind went to the Direct Provision Centres, with its shared rooms, shared bathrooms, canteens, recreation areas. I tweeted about it, asking Charlie Flanagan and HSE what they were going to do about them, how will they apply social distancing in these places?
The community of the Kinsale Road Direct Provision centre was left stunned when two of its residents were forcefully deported two weeks ago. They were Junaid and Sultan, two Pakistanis who were already on the deportation list, but they were hoping to revoke the deportation. They went to sign on at the GNIB in Dublin, […]
We have recently started a cricket team at the Kinsale Road Accommodation Centre. Just like our world music band, Citadel, cricket is offering refuge to many of the residents of Direct provision Centres, and we want to spread the news. It all started quite innocently with one of the young Pakistani boys asking me if […]
https://videopress.com/embed/4QT4CMND?hd=0&autoPlay=0&permalink=0&loop=0 By Roos Demol It had been on our mind for a long time. We wanted to do something special, something that at first glance looked simple and innocent, but carried a lot of importance. Norbert, at the same time, wanted to start collecting funds to keep up our work in partnership with the St […]
Burundian asylum seekers in Ireland think that the IPO and the government have either forgotten about them or simply don’t care. There are currently around 7 Burundian refugees asking for asylum in Ireland. Burundi is a small country in the East of Africa, it borders with the Democratic Republic of Congo to the West, Tanzania to the East and Rwanda to the North. This beautiful country has a very sad history of troubles, with the genocide which happened there in 1993, and more recently the forced unconstitutional 3rd mandate election of the president Pierre Nkurunziza in 2015. Human Rights Watch has recently published an article on the horrendous situation in Burundi. You can read it here. it talks about crises of massacres, rape and torture of the opponents of the 3rd and unconstitutional mandate of Pierre Nkurunziza. Since 2015, more than 400,000 people have fled the country, escaping human rights abuses, continued political uncertainty, and the related humanitarian crisis.
I spoke to three of the Burundian asylum seekers here in Ireland. I am keeping their names confidential to protect their safety and the safety of their families who are still in Burundi.
The first testimony comes from a man in Cork, he is a professional and a father of 4 children.
He thinks that the IPO or Ireland have either forgotten about them or don’t want to take care of Burundian asylum seekers, because it has now been 2 years and 5 months since he arrived here in March 2016 and since then not one Burundian has received a decision on his/her case.
‘I was called for an interview 5 times now, and I have done 4 interviews of 4 to 5 hours each, answering the same questions that remind me of the pain I have been through, of all the abuse inflicted on me. Every time I leave the interview I spend one or two weeks thinking about why I have to suffer like this, because of questions about what happened to me that keep coming back. Every time I give the same answers, and I wonder if they are waiting for a certain response. I imagine that they have a certain answer in mind, that I am not giving them, and they keep calling me back. But everything I have told them is the truth, I have given all the proof necessary, and I just don’t understand why they keep calling me back and ask the same questions time after time again.
I feel like I keep doing the Way of the Cross in a country where I thought I would find protection and refuge for myself and my family. I am a father, I left my children behind, I am incapable of saving them and I am not even sure if I will ever be able to.
Are there no parents among those who treat my case, who can imagine the trauma I go through, or who can put themselves in my place or that of other people like me who are like prisoners in the Direct Provision Centres.
There have been times here when I have thought about how my life is worthless, and that it would be better to die than to let ideas and unrealisable responsibilities take over. Then I wonder if they don’t understand me, or if it pleases them to see how everything that happened to me affects me when they keep insisting on it every time I meet them. Or if one day I will lose my family because of the same reason, that I have been explaining since the first interview. Up to now, my wife and children live in hiding from fear of being found and exterminated one day.
We are not allowed to complain and we can’t ask questions to the IPO about the progress of our case.
We are put in a queue and we never know when we will be called again.
Is Ireland not aware of all the sanctions of the EU against Burundi, are they not aware of the top 10 countries at risk? Ireland has also voted for sanctions against Burundi. Are they not aware of that in the IPO?’
The second witness is a young woman who lives in Galway. This is a lovely well-spoken lady, a young mother of two children, aged 9 and 11 who are still in Burundi. If she returns to be with them she knows she won’t survive.
This lady has been interviewed three times, her interviews have finished but without a decision. The last interview was in April of this year. The interviewer said she would get an answer in maximum 3 months. The three months have now become four.
‘When I arrived here, the IPO officials had told me I would have to wait a minimum of 6 months, but I never thought I would wait for nearly three years without knowing what will happen. I have seen other people of different nationalities, who have arrived at the same time as me receive their papers, or go into appeal against a first negative decision, but I and the other Burundians who have been here for the past 3 years are still waiting.
I was advised against working, because of the cost of the stay in the Direct Provision centres and ifI’d move out, homelessness looming should I then lose the job.
I feel my life here is useless. My children feel abandoned. They think their mother lives in the paradise of Europe and has left them behind.
I told my interviewer that surely he must be well-informed about what is going on in Burundi. His answer was, ‘I don’t care’.’
The third Burundian asylum seeker I spoke to also lives in the Kinsale Road Accommodation Centre. He says he was the first of the seven to arrive in Ireland. He had one interview with ORAC, but since then the system has changed, he filled out the new 60-page questionnaire and that’s it. He hasn’t heard anything else. He is still waiting for his interview, nearly three years after arriving.
‘I was 21 years old when I arrived here, now I am 24 years old, I feel like the best time of my life is being wasted in the Direct Provision Centre. I had big ambitions when I got here. I thought I could go to college. Everything was still fresh in my head because I was a student at the University in Burundi when things got really bad and I had to run. I would like to finish my education, but I have no access to third level education. Instead, I am just staying somewhere in an Accommodation centre, being fed as if I am in a nursing home, like an old man.
My friends told me I would be better off with a private lawyer, and supported me financially to get one. She has not done anything for me either. She tells me to wait.
I have not been able to work and I am scared that I will lose my skills, just because the system won’t allow me to do anything. It hurts. People my age are realising their dreams, they are getting better and better at what they do, I wanted to be part of that.
When you arrive in Europe you think you are coming to a safe land, but instead, you are treated as if you are unable to do anything. It makes me depressed.
It is impossible to stay in my country, it is very, very bad there. But none of us Burundians has had an answer to their case.
Irish people don’t really know Burundi, but the IPO does. I came to look for asylum. They are professionals, they have to investigate where you are from, they should know. So I think that they ignore it, they do know about what happens in Burundi. They are just ignoring us. It feels like they put us in a cupboard like you do with files. They put us in a cupboard and close it. They say ‘Oh he’s Burundian, okay, in the cupboard and close the door’
I would like to ask the people at the IPO, maybe they have children my age, how would they feel if their child was put somewhere and forgotten about? All I ask for is to be legalised and to let me decide for myself how I can live and work.
Europe, land of hope…..I have been very disappointed.’
These are three of the seven Burundians waiting in Direct Provision centres around the country. A report of the Commission of Inquiry of the United Nations Human Rights Council says that the Commission advised to grant prima facie refugee status to Burundian nationals and to ensure strict respect for the principle of non-refoulement. the current security situation in Burundi obliges the asylum authorities to treat these applications with great caution.
The Burundian asylum seekers are wondering what they can do to make the Irish government act on their cases. They are asking not to be forgotten. They have been through horrible events and should be treated as the true heroes they are.
They had been fighting for it for many years, and on June 27th this year, the announcement finally came. Asylum seekers in Ireland will be allowed to access the labour market without restrictions, apart from the obvious ones, like the civil servant jobs, or the gardaí. Everybody was delighted. At last! Fathers would be able to provide for their children, young people wouldn’t have to waste their life away playing pool or table tennis in recreation rooms of Direct Provision Centres, those who had learned skills while here, such as caretaking, IT skills, textiles, could finally use what they had learned, there was a sense of relief and celebration. Then we looked a bit closer. Well actually, only those who have been in Ireland for at least nine months, and who haven’t yet had the first decision on their case can work. That immediately reduces the number by a lot. I haven’t been able to find the exact number, there are no public statistics on how many people are in appeal after a first negative decision. The mood changed slightly. Still, for those who are eligible, it was good news.
I immediately started helping my friends in the local accommodation centre to write CVs, get connected on LinkedIn, search the job sites for vacancies and start applying.
They asked and received their permission to work straight away, a permission which is valid for six months and renewable after until the person holding it has received refugee status or leave to remain, or until a final negative decision is reached.
And then, slowly but surely, reality dawned on us. One of my friends applied for the French language customer service jobs in Cork. There are many vacancies. He immediately got a reply from Voxpro and also from Grafton recruitment.
They asked for his work permit, he sent them the permission he received. And then it went wrong. At Voxpro the reaction was that this permission was only for 6 months. We tried to explain that it would be renewable every 6 months, but to no avail. They had the bad manners of not replying to my friend’s very kind email anymore.
At Grafton Recruitment, he was asked for his GNIB card, which you can only get when you have residency in Ireland. My friend called the agency in my presence.
The call was answered by a receptionist who laughed loudly at my friend’s name and told him the recruiter would call him back, while still laughing. That phone call never came.
We then sent them an email, explaining the new right to work rule and even attaching the fact file we had received. All to no avail. No further contact was made.
It has become clear that recruiters are not informed, they are unaware of the new right to work rule, and some of them are also quite rude.
We were trying not to lose hope.
My friend wanted to open a bank account, but the AIB and the Bank of Ireland refused to do so because he could not produce a passport (which is held at the IPO office). One IPO officer had explained to the asylum seekers that they could ask for a form confirming their identity at the IPO office. So we did. This is what Jean got back:
Dear sir, I write to acknowledge receipt for request of a certified copy of identity (that was not the request. The request was for a document that confirms his identity, as explained by the IPO officer sic.)In this regard, I write to advise you that this office provides a photocopy version of documents only. It does not provide certified copies of documents.
Our records show that an application to the International Protection Office was made on …….using the above name and providing the date of birth of…………………
The applicant is currently resident at the above address.
This application is currently being processed by this Office.
I think it is quite clear that this will never be accepted as a form of identification.
Every time I walk into the accommodation centre, someone asks me for help with writing a CV, or how to ask for permission to work. I am not a professional career advisor, and I was quite astonished that no help had been offered by official instances, so when I met a lady from the social protection office (for personal reasons), I asked her if it would not be possible for the employment office (Intreo) to offer help, maybe workshops, to eligible asylum seekers. She told me, that they just need to call the office and make an appointment with a caseworker. She looked at me slightly annoyed saying, it is all very straightforward. The Intreo workers had received an email explaining the new right to work rule and they are available to help with looking for work.
How can asylum seekers know, if nobody informs them, I asked. She gave me some cards with the website details, and a number to call in Cork for those who want to make an appointment in the Cork office.
That has so far been the only positive development.
Intreo helps, they didn’t tell anyone, but once you know, they do help, sort of. When my friend went to see his caseworker and asked her what he could do about the recruitment agency asking for a GNIB card, she told him to send them a link to the jounal.ie article, talking about the new right to work rule. Well, I don’t think that is a very professional way of informing recruiters.
There are other problems; the price working asylum seekers will have to pay to stay in the (shared with unknown people) room in the accommodation centres is calculated at a whopping 35 € a day. Once in full-time employment, that comes to €1085 per month for a shared room and food which you can’t access because you are at work, and often don’t come back on time to get it, on top of that it is not very nice.
So you say, move out and rent a place in town. All good, until you lose your job and have no more income. You’d have to return to the Direct Provision centre, where, by that time your room has already been rented out and the authorities will decide to transfer you to a city you have never been to before and you will have to start from scratch again.
Or your case is finalised with a negative decision. If that happens you will not be allowed in the centre anymore and will certainly become homeless.
I talked about this with someone from a known NGO. She told me to advise asylum seekers not to work. The risks are too high, the price of the accommodation unsustainable. There is too much insecurity.
So here is the desperation in a nutshell:
- recruiters have not been informed about the right to work for asylum seekers
- the IPO is not prepared to provide asylum seekers with confirmation of their identity, although they were told so by an IPO officer who visited the accommodation centres
- asylum seekers were not informed of the support they can get from Intreo. And the support they do get is not always sufficient
- the price of the accommodation is too high
- leaving the accommodation centre is not an option because of the immense insecurity of what will happen when they lose their job or get a negative final decision.
- banks will not open an account without a passport, which most asylum seekers don’t have.
For goodness sake, Ireland! Do something about this.