Mags GarganOne year after promises of reform, the waiting game continues for those trapped in Ireland’s asylum system, writes Mags Gargan
Imagine living under a regime where you were not allowed to have a job, go to college, cook your own meals or have enough money to buy your own clothes. Am I referring to a prison or some despotic military state? No, this is the reality for refugees and asylum seekers living in Ireland who are accommodated in 34 residential institutions of varying quality, under the ‘direct provision’ system.
Fifteen years ago direct provision was introduced by the Government as a means of meeting the basic needs of food and shelter for asylum seekers while their claims for refugee status are being processed, rather than through full cash payments. It covers full board accommodation and personal allowances of €19.10 per adult and €9.60 per child per week.
It was supposed to be a short-term arrangement, for about six months, but instead has been allowed to escalate into a cruel and inhumane situation where many asylum seekers spend up to seven years living in conditions which most agree are damaging to the health.
The centres, which include former hostels, hotels and a mobile home park, are run by private contractors who receive about €50 million in State funding annually.
Families
Single residents share a room with several other adults of different ages, nationalities and religions. Whole families also have to share one room and children born into direct provision know no other way of life. The lives of residents are governed by restrictive rules, having to eat in a canteen at set times and not being allowed food in their room. Depression, isolation and loneliness are common as the residents feel trapped in an endless cycle of waiting for a decision on their legal status, while having no way of earning a living to give them a sense of identity and purpose.
Mary*, from Cameroon, shares one room with her four and five-year-old daughters. She has been living in direct provision for six years, so both her children were born into the system. “Life is tough but we manage. The most challenging thing is not having money of my own,” she said. “Sometimes the children want something for their lunchbox and if the centre doesn’t have it I have to take it from the €19 or €9 allowance to buy what they need.”
Mary’s daughters see themselves as Irish and don’t really understand the situation they are living in. “Sometimes they will ask me, ‘Mummy, where is your Mummy? Where is your sister?’ I always say they are in Cameroon. I explain that I moved from Cameroon. So they say, ‘oh so we are from Cameroon and one day we will go to Africa?’ And I say yes, when we get our papers. We can go back some day and visit my sister.”
Elizabeth* is from Nigeria. She has been living in direct provision for seven years. She lives in two rooms with her two boys and two girls. Her youngest child is seven and does not know any other form of family life. “When they are young they know nothing. But when they start to grow up and go to school they see themselves as different,” she said. “Sometimes I don’t have the explanations to answer their questions. They ask me, ‘Are we living here forever?’ and I have to say I don’t know, ask God.”
'Real risk'
Over 4,000 people are currently living in direct provision and one third of them are children. Back in 2012, Geoffrey Shannon, Special Rapporteur on Children, highlighted the “real risk” of child abuse in direct provision where single parent families are required to share with strangers and where families with teenage children of opposite gender are required to share one room.
In May this year a HIQA report found that around 14% of the population of children living in direct provision were referred to the Child and Family Agency in one year. Children were being left alone for long periods of time, were living in close proximity to unknown adults and there was inappropriate contact by adults towards some children.
“It is not easy to live with people from different backgrounds, cultures and religion,” Elizabeth said. “Some people’s moods affect whatever they are doing, so you have to very careful about who you are dealing with. We are all in the same place and there is no way to avoid anyone. You have children who go out to play and they copy other people.
“There are a lot of young, single guys living in the centre. My older boys are tall and look like adults but they are still children. So I always tell them you are growing but still remember you are a teenager and the people you meet are adults. You can’t do everything that they do. It is a very risky situation.”
Look back in shame
Msgr John Byrne, parish priest of Portlaoise, who ministers to refugees living in direct provision in the Montague Hotel in Emo has predicted that a future government will end up publicly apologising for damage done to children living in direct provision. “We look back on our past in shame both as a Church and as a society, and wonder how could we have treated people like that? How could we have treated mothers and babies in that manner? And yet this is very akin to that. These children are living very stunted lives,” Msgr Byrne said.
Sr Betty Dalton, a St Louis Sister volunteering with the Monaghan Immigrant Support Group is concerned by the lack of support asylum seekers receive once they are granted status. “The other side of it is the people who have left direct provision.
“Many find it financially difficult. In direct provision don’t have to think of the TV licence, you don’t have to think of the electricity bill or so many other things. These are all things that you have to face when you come out and to get accommodation now is so difficult and expensive. It doesn’t prepare you for real life. But at least you can make your own decisions.”
She would like to see people leave direct provision after six months “to lead a more independent way of living”. “It’s hard to know what the rationale is behind direct provision – keeping
people for seven years. It doesn’t allow people to work or to educate themselves.”
For years the voices of asylum seekers were rarely heard, as many were fearful that speaking out would damage their request for refugee status. But that changed in September last year when residents held protests against the direct provision system at five centres nationally: Limerick, Portlaoise, Athlone and two in Cork. Support for their campaign against their living conditions and the excessive waiting times gained public support and massive press coverage.
Improvements
In answer to this outcry Justice Minister Francis Fitzgerald and Minister of State Aodhán Ó Riordáin named a Government-appointed working group to examine improvements to direct provision. The working group was chaired by retired High Court Judge Bryan McMahon and its membership was drawn from a range of interests in the international protection area including two religious groups, the Jesuit Refugee Service and Spirasi (the Spiritan organisation which supports survivors of torture).
The report from the ‘Working Group on the Protection Process’ was released on June 30 this year and it made 173 recommendations agreed by consensus by all the relevant Government departments, NGOs and UNHCR. The three key priorities in the report requiring immediate action were:
- Those living in direct provision for five years or more (41%) should be granted protection status or leave to remain (subject to certain conditions) as soon as possible.
- The weekly direct provision allowance should be increased to €38.74 for adults and €29.80 for children.
- Communal catering should be introduced to direct provision centres.
“The extensive consultation process undertaken by the working group highlighted that the biggest single issue facing asylum seekers is the length of time spent in the system,” Eugene Quinn, the JRS Ireland National Director told The Irish Catholic. “In the experience of JRS Ireland the most negative aspects of life in direct provision such as institutionalisation, adverse effect on family life and relationships, the obsolescence of skills and qualifications and the creation of dependency are functions of duration and exacerbated by the length of time in the system.”
Stephen Ng’ang’a, Coordinator of the Core Group of Asylum Seekers, said that 4,300 asylum seekers residing in Ireland’s 34 direct provision centres are watching eagerly for the recommendations to be implemented.
“Many of us have been ‘living in limbo’ with our lives on hold in direct provision for too long. The solution recommended for persons who have been in the system for more than five years will assist many to finally exit the system. All that is required is the political courage to act.”
Task force
In July a task force, chaired by Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, was set up to report back to the Government on key aspects of the working group’s report with a deadline of September 30. Some questioned why this was necessary when representatives from the relevant Government departments had been part of the working group discussions and had already agreed with the recommendations.
When Mr Ó Riordáin was appointed Minister of State for Equality and New Communities last year he said direct provision was a priority and “needs radical reform”. Many of the asylum seekers I’ve spoken to believe the minister to be sincere in this, but three months after the publication of the report and three weeks since the task force’s deadline has passed, there is still no news of when implementation of the recommendations will begin.
Some fear the escalating housing crisis and the Government’s commitment to take 4,000 Syrian refugees may be part of the delay. Minister Joan Burton has said that the Syrian refugees will not be put into direct provision, but Sue Conlan, CEO of the Irish Refugee Council has disputed this saying “the only provision for them in Ireland at the moment is direct provision”.
Earlier this month the Irish Bishops’ Conference called for the implementation of the recommendations of the working group report in advance of the resettlement of the 4,000 new refugees. “Here in Ireland, an important first step must be to address existing barriers to integration for refugees and people seeking asylum who are already here.
“Urgent reform is required to avoid the creation of an unjust two-tier system in which the needs of those who have been waiting for status for many years are overlooked,” the bishops warned.
Meanwhile, for the people living in direct provision the waiting continues; waiting for their paperwork to be processed, waiting for the Government to implement reform; waiting for their real lives to begin.
“It makes you feel like your life is stopped, at a standstill, you are stuck in a place,” Elizabeth said. “Someone tells you when to eat, even when you are not hungry. Someone tells you what to eat, even when you don’t have an appetite for that food. It is just like we are caged somehow. It is so suffocating.”
*Not her real name.