No limit to refugee numbers says Joan
Tánaiste pledges refugees will be able to bring families to Ireland
JOAN Burton has insisted there will be no limit to the number of refugees the State will take – but said 5,000 is the likely intake for now.
The Tánaiste, though, said refugees would be allowed to bring in their families too.
THERE is no upper limit on the number of refugees Ireland will take in the current crisis, but 5,000 is a likely intake in the medium term, Joan Burton has said.
However, they will also have the right to bring their families to join them here, meaning that the overall total could swell to a ELECTRIC Picnic revellers donated hundreds of tents to help migrants in Calais. They gave around 400 tents, sleeping bags, other camping equipment and clothes to help.
The music lovers dropped the items to information points in each campsite, where volunteers collected them.
Organiser Róisín Garvey, of the Ireland Calais Refugee Solidarity group, said: ‘We are overwhelmed by the response.’
An articulated lorry will transport the supplies to Calais in France on September 29. multiple of that figure.
The Tánaiste said: ‘A key feature is that you have a right to family reunification. Over a period of time, through agencies and the Red Cross, you can do that, particularly to bring the children and the older people in a family, who may be scattered in other countries. That happened widely after Rwanda, for instance.
‘There is no upper limit. I would imagine, in terms of the numbers, I would have thought that in the case of Ireland we would be talking, over a period of time, of 5,000 people.
‘We won’t know for some time the exact figure, but that is the figure that is in the mix.
‘I want to stress this – the people who come here will be coming under a refugee programme. We will have to assist them with language and employment. The critical issue in terms of integration in Irish society is to be able to speak the language.
‘The direct provision issue doesn’t arise in the case of people arriving from Syria. They will have residency status and leave to remain for a period of time. I want to make that very clear. These are people who will come in, like people from Bosnia and Vietnam before that. Under the Geneva Convention, these people are fleeing war and total breakdown in their country.’
Ms Burton said Ireland would be sending a high-powered delegation to the UN General Assembly in New York later this month and the Syria situation ought to be tackled then by the international community.
‘We have to respond as human beings to probably one of the biggest crises that has faced Europe.
‘Ireland will be going to the UN for the General Assembly. We have to push for a settlement in Syria – there are millions of people in camps between Turkey, the Lebanon and Jordan and many more internally displaced. We have to use the United Nations to push for that – that’s critical. The scenes that we are seeing at the moment demand it.
‘Ireland will respond to the needs that we see, as we always have done in recent decades. We sent our Naval Service ships to support the rescue operations in the Mediterranean.’
She added: ‘We will look at the numbers we are being asked to take. There needs to be a concentrated effort to provide a peace framework for Syria. We want to see a Programme of Welcome here for those people that we take into Ireland.’