Asylum seekers ‘wait 19 months before their cases are even heard’
‘Increase in new applicants’
ASYLUM seekers are spending 19 months in Direct Provision to have their cases processed, an Oireachtas committee was told yesterday.
Dr Bryan MacMahon, who penned a 2015 report recommending improvements to the process, criticised the backlog, at a justice committee meeting, and said his warnings had not been heeded.
Four years ago, the former High Court judge’s working group called for anyone waiting more than five years to be fast-tracked out of the system. And yesterday, he said: ‘We warned unless you cleaned out, backlog would continue to upset the expeditious dealing. The Government did not accept our proposal on that. The bulge in the system continues.
‘If you’re only dealing with current people coming in, the present system will adequately deal with them, but it’s complicated by that legacy.
Nowadays, there is backlog of about 19 months before an applicant can have his case heard. That is too long,’ he added.
Direct Provision, which is run by the Reception and Integration Agency, provides asylum seekers with their basic needs of food and shelter while their claims for refugee status are being processed.
There are currently over 6,100 people living in Direct Provision, some of whom have been in centres for over seven years, when it was intended that they only be there for six months.
Judge MacMahon added that the current housing crisis and lack of accommodation exacerbates overcrowding.
‘There has been a sustained increased in new applications averaging more than 300 a month,’ he said. ‘This has put greater pressure on RIA’s existing stock, in that more applicants continue to live in Direct Provision even when they receive positive application status, as alternative accommodation is not available for those who wish to avail of it.’
He estimates that there are 800 people trying to transition out of Direct Provision. RIA is obliged to engage in emergency accommodation due to the housing shortages, costing €99 a night in some cases. Judge MacMahon warned this should be a ‘short-term fix and not a long-term solution’ due to the expense.
The Direct Provision system has come under intense criticism since its inception in 2000, and has been labelled illegal, inhuman and degrading by human rights organisations. Concerns have been flagged about lack of acceptable living and hygiene standards, as well as the effect on residents’ mental and physical health.
It was also revealed at the meeting that victims of sex trafficking are being asked to leave Direct Provision centres and present as homeless. Brian Killoran, chief executive of the Immigrant Council of Ireland, told the committee that women and underage girls who have been raped, sexually abused, coerced and trafficked are being asked to leave centres after 60 days, ‘which they believe is the upper limit of their responsibility to supporting victims of trafficking’.
The committee also heard that the recommended single female gender hostel for victims of trafficking was set up without any specialised services for such victims, and is now an unsuitable housing alternative. Currently, no victims of trafficking live in the gender-specified centre.
The US State Department’s 2018 Trafficking in Persons Report deemed Ireland to be unfit to provide the minimum services required to help victims of human trafficking.
The report downgraded Ireland to a Tier 2 country, meaning it no longer deemed the country to be meeting the minimum standards required in the fight against human trafficking, owing, in particular, to its ongoing failure to address shortcomings in the treatment of victims.
The report found ‘chronic deficiencies’ with Ireland’s victim identification procedure and criticised Ireland’s accommodation of victims of sex trafficking, who often spend extended periods in Direct Provision centres without access to appropriate and gender-sensitive support.