Greg DalyIrish parishes should be more active in tackling Ireland’s Direct Provision system, a priest with long experience of dealing with migrant communities has said.
Recalling how such systems were first introduced in Australia to deter immigration, and observing that it hasn’t worked, Fr Alan Hilliard told The Irish Catholic that parishes should do more to raise awareness of the plight of asylum seekers.
Fr Alan Hilliard, whose Open Heart, Open Hands: Welcoming Migrants to Ireland is published this week by Messenger Communications, said that parishes should work towards sponsorship schemes for migrant families.
“There should be families trained to work with families in Direct Provision to get to know life in Ireland outside direct provision – families with children the same age,” he said, arguing that such a sponsorship scheme would benefit society as a whole.
The call comes following the revelation that more than 650 people have been in the direct provision system for more than five years.
According to information provided by Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald to Sinn Féin TD Seán Crowe, there were 4,248 asylum seekers in reception centres around the country at the end of last month. Fewer than a quarter of these had been in Ireland for less than a year.
Inhuman
“The idea of Direct Provision being a long-term living arrangement for asylum seekers is just inhuman, and particularly for the children involved,” Portlaoise Parish Priest Monsignor John Byrne told The Irish Catholic.
Referring to a nearby Direct Provision centre at the former Montague Hotel, Msgr Byrne said: “There are children who were born to parents living in the Montague, and they’re still living in the Montague some seven and eight years later.”
Describing them as living “very limited lives”, he cited as an example how, despite the recommendations of last year’s McMahon working group, mothers and fathers in direct provision were barred from cooking for their children, such that children in direct provision have never even experienced a home-cooked meal.
Of the group’s report, he said: “The Department of Justice says that 91 of 172 recommendations have been implemented – I have no clue what any one of those are.”