Chai Brady
01Noel Selorm from Ghana, who was staying in the Balseskin Reception Centre for asylum seekers, leads a group of Sanctuary Runners across the Samuel Beckett Bridge in Dublin in January 2020. Welcome plans to scrap the ‘undignified’ direct provision system will be challenging, writes Chai Brady
Many priests and religious have been doing their best to help integrate asylum seekers into communities as well as support them through advocacy, particularly by calling for an end to the direct provision system, but with a housing crisis and the financial devastation wrought by the pandemic there will have to be a priority given by society to help some of the most vulnerable according to the bishop of Achonry.
Ending direct provision has been a call made by groups across Ireland’s political and charitable sectors but for two decades pushes to overhaul the system seem to have fallen on deaf ears, until recently. Now that a White Paper on the system was published last week, it is anticipated that all existing Direct Provision centres will close by the end of 2024.
Before Bishop Paul Dempsey was ordained bishop of the Diocese of Achonry, he was the parish priest in Newbridge. There was a direct provision centre there of which he was involved.
Speaking to The Irish Catholic about the centre, he said: “Obviously it certainly was far from ideal, the conditions that people had to live in there were very cramped and I would consider them very undignified, but there were wonderful people who had come from so many difficult situations and literally had to flee their home countries.”
Difficulty
“I think part of the difficulty of direct provision would have been the whole issue of red tape, people trying to go through a very long arduous process to try and get some form of permission here to live and to work in Ireland and the amount of red tape that they had to go through was very tiring so hopefully that will be tackled as well.”
The bishop welcomed the new plans, which will see a bigger push for integration and improved living standards, which he described as a “great process”.
“I would have made the statement that obviously we know that the mother and baby homes report was produced there recently, obviously we’re talking about a different time but we were talking about the very undignified way women and children were treated but I would have made the point that maybe in today’s society there are situations where women and children and men are treated in a very undignified manner,” he said.
“Unfortunately, we can’t do much about the past but we can do something about the present and it was certainly an area that’s glaring in our society, that we need to reach out and help these people who have come from very traumatic situations in a lot of instances. It’s great to see, well after about 20 years of calls on this system to be improved, that at least there are some moves to see drastic improvements in this area now.”
Slow
Bishop Dempsey added that “it has been very slow” but “I think it’s important that we acknowledge that something positive is happening”.
The Government’s White Paper proposes a two-phase approach, with the first taking four months. Asylum seekers will spend that time in reception and integration centres. These six centres will be owned by the State and operated by not-for-profit organisations.
From the day they arrive they will be helped with their integration into Ireland via health, housing, education, and employment supports. Assessments will be carried out to determine accommodation and service needs and help define suitable supported pathways for the most vulnerable.
Assessment
A health assessment will be provided for all new international protection applicants in this phase and there will be a particular focus on the needs of children who come to Ireland with their families. Applicants will be entitled to seek paid work after six months, be able to open a bank account and apply for an Irish driver’s license.
Following phase one, applicants will be offered accommodation through a number of strands in phase two. Asylum seekers who are still being processed after four months will be moved to accommodation in the community.
The White Paper states this will be own-door or own-room accommodation, for which they will pay a means-tested rent. For families, all accommodation will be own-door, self-contained houses or apartments while single people will be housed in either own-door or own-room accommodation.
These accommodations are expected to be built or acquired through approved housing bodies or similar organisations.
Bishop Dempsey said that “there will be huge challenges” in making the plans a reality.
“I would imagine too in light of the Covid-19 situation and the many billions that are being spent to try and support people who have lost their livelihoods in so many areas of our country that obviously in the coming years the whole financial situation of the country is going to be very, very challenging,” he said.
“But I think maybe that challenge is also as a society too, to say ‘well where are our priorities?’ Because it’s not just about providing physical homes for people it’s about welcoming people into communities and making sure that they feel welcome and it’s our attitude towards people that is so important as well – that it’s a homely attitude that we have in welcoming these people to our society.”
“I think that’s really important and to keep that in mind as well, but no doubt there will be financial challenges around this but as the old saying goes, where there’s a will there’s a way, and I think if the will is here to help these people and to welcome these people from these very difficult situations then I think we should invest in that and it’s very well worthwhile investing in it and very important that we do.”
The Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman, whose department prepared the plans, said they estimate the current cost per year will be €175m across all departments. They have also set out a range of capital costings over the lifetime of the new system of between €440m and €670m.
Measures are expected to be put in place to avoid local dissatisfaction with the location of the Reception and Integration Centres or community accommodation, according to the minister.
Housing crisis
Regarding Ireland’s current housing crisis – January 2021 figures show a rise in the number of people who are homeless to 8,313 – Bishop Dempsey said it’s something “we’re going to have to look at urgently in society”.
“You know in recent years we’ve seen some horrific programmes – say [RTÉ’s] Primetime programmes – the way some people are corralled into horrific housing situations, on top of one another in the most undignified fashion,” he said, “when you think about it from our own history as an Irish people, emigration was very much part of our history, so many of our people certainly in the 1950s and the maybe the 1980s in particular had to emigrate to the likes of the United States or England, Australia.
“But many of our people certainly in the 1950s had to live in horrendous conditions themselves maybe in the likes of London, in very lonely and difficult situations, so we’ve been there ourselves, maybe it’s time now that we reach out and learn from our own history to welcome people and to invest in dignified housing for all of our people, not just the people who have come into the country but for our own citizens as well who are here.
“It’s a basic human right that we have a decent shelter over our heads and maybe the whole Covid situation will help us to reflect on what are our basic human rights, what is really important in life and surely to goodness a bit of dignified living conditions would be very, very important for anybody in our country, our own citizens and those that we welcome who have come from very difficult situations in other parts of the world.”