Direct Provision & Advocacy
Asylum seekers are dispersed to
Direct Provision Accommodation Centres within a few weeks of lodging
their asylum application. The majority of these institutions
are
situated in small towns scattered around the country.
The system
of Direct Provision has been in operation since 2001 and there are
approximately 4,000 asylum seekers resident in 50 accommodation
centres. The average length of stay is more than 3 years.
Setting
minimum standards for the reception of asylum applicants was set as a
priority for establishing a common European asylum system by the EU
Heads of State or Government at the European Council in Tampere in
October 1999. The Treaty establishing the European Community (Article
63.1.b) specifically requested the Council to adopt minimum standards
for the reception of asylum-seekers within EC Member States.
This
was achieved on 27 January 2003 by the promulgation of the Directive on
Laying Down Minimum Standards for the Reception of Asylum Seekers,
often referred to as the Reception Conditions Directive.
Ireland
has not yet ratified EC Directive 2003/9/EC. The aim of the
Reception Conditions Directive is to harmonise the legislation of
Member States to ensure that asylum seekers can live in similar
conditions of dignity in each Member State and to limit each State’s
power of discretion with regard to the level and form of material
reception conditions, access to employment, health care, free movement
rights and identification and care of vulnerable persons.
Member
States had to transpose the Reception Conditions Directive by 6
February 2005. Ireland and Denmark were the only Member States not to
do so.
Ireland does not provide the right to employment and
limits access to social welfare and education. Asylum seekers
in
Direct Provision are provided with 3 meals per day and a ration of
toilet paper and washing powder. They are also provided with
a
small weekly payment of €19.10 per adult or €9 per child with which to
pay for all other essentials including clothes, toiletries, transport
fares, phone calls etc. Residents feel that they become
isolated,
de-skilled and institutionalised and that opportunities for integration
into Irish society are reduced by this system.
Click
here
to download a case study report from Galway about the impact
of
direct provision on organisation and delivery of local health and
social care services.
Click here
to download a booklet created by NUIGalway Philosophy students on
Asylum seekers, focusing on interviews from asylum seekers in Galway
and other relevant organisations including GRSG.
Click here for AkiDwA's new report on women living in direct provision