Teen asylum seekers take HSE to court

FOUR TEENAGE asylum seekers planning to sit the Leaving Certificate next June have taken High Court proceedings against the HSE aimed at allowing them to return to schools they had previously attended in Dublin.

The four girls, who arrived in Ireland from Africa in 2008 as unaccompanied minors, were initially placed in care and had attended Dublin schools. However after they turned 18, they were relocated to adult hostel accommodation in Galway, where they are currently attending schools.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0924/1224279587860.html

Giving asylum seekers social welfare would double cost

MOVING asylum seekers into the social welfare net would more than double the cost of accommodating them in Ireland each year.
A report into value for money in providing bed and board for would-be refugees found that the so-called "direct provision" system is the cheapest option.

Using this system, asylum seekers are paid a small weekly stipend in welfare payments but have their lodgings and food needs provided for.

The cost of providing accommodation for asylum seekers is now in the order of €91.5m with an average occupancy of 6,857 people.

However, moving those people directly into the social welfare system could end up costing at least €180m, the report found.

http://www.tribune.ie/news/home-news/article/2010/sep/12/giving-asylum-seekers-social-welfare-would-double-/

Asylum seekers stage protests

Asylum seekers are holding demonstrations in several towns across the State today to highlight the long delays in deciding their cases and the poor living conditions at accommodation centres.

The protests coincide with an August 31st deadline set by the Reception and Integration Agency, which is responsible for the care of asylum seekers, for 109 residents at Mosney to move to a different asylum hostel in Dublin.

Up to 80 asylum-seekers demonstrated outside Mosney this morning over the transfer orders made to the residents to move to Hatch Hall in Dublin.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0831/breaking20.html

Fewer than 25% served with deportation orders have been removed from State

THE GOVERNMENT has deported fewer than a quarter of the people it targeted for removal from the State over the past decade.

Figures show 3,680 people – the vast majority of whom are failed asylum seekers – have been deported since January 2000. In the same period successive ministers for justice signed some 16,799 deportation orders. The wherabouts of the remaining 13,119 people served with deportation orders is not known. Some have voluntarily returned to their home country, others have fled to other EU states and some live illegally in the State.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0830/1224277855268.html

Thousands of asylum seekers unaccounted for

UP to 5,500 people who are claiming asylum are not living in the state-provided accommodation centres where asylum seekers are expected to reside, and so fall outside official figures.

According to figures obtained by the Irish Examiner, there are approximately 11,500 cases awaiting processing in the lengthy and complex legal system around asylum – and not just the 6,000-plus who live at the state-funded centres.

Under Department of Justice rules, asylum seekers are not allowed to seek alternative accommodation in the private rented sector.

http://irishexaminer.com/ireland/thousands-of-asylum-seekers-unaccounted-for-129281.html#ixzz0y6rzNKQx

Female asylum seekers not happy with detention conditions

A SMALL number of foreign women held in immigration-related detention have complained about the conditions in the Dóchas Centre, including in some cases, racist abuse from other inmates.

"Detainees report having racist insults hurled at them from Irish criminal offenders that are detained within the same space."

It also quotes from one of the interviewees: "I suffered depression in Zimbabwe, but it is worse now since I’ve been in prison."

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/women-in-immigration-related-detention-suffer-racist-abuse-from-inmates-126932.html#ixzz0vfCIeKeO

Review ordered for asylum seekers

IMMIGRATION AUTHORITIES have ordered a review into the cases of asylum seekers who are waiting five years or more to receive a final decision on their application to continue living in the State.

The review could benefit about 100 people who have been living in direct provision accommodation centres since 2005. It may be extended to a couple of hundred other asylum seekers, who choose to live outside the centres.

Officials at the Department of Justice have told non-governmental organisations (NGOs) the review is not an amnesty, although it is being undertaken with a view to granting leave to remain to people living here longer than five years.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0804/1224276148264.html

A third in asylum centres are children

At the end of May there were 6,246 people living in direct provision accommodation in 45 centres around the country, 2,034 of whom are under 18.

More than 1,250 of those are children under four years old, suggesting many are being born in Ireland as asylum seekers.

http://irishexaminer.com/ireland/a-third-in-asylum-centres-are-children-126772.html#ixzz0vTbFJjvz

Parents forced to seek asylum for Irish-born children

IRISH-BORN children only a few months old are being individually placed in the asylum process despite never having left Ireland.

The Irish Refugee Council (IRC) is to raise the issue, which is leading to significant delays in the asylum process, with the Department of Justice.

The individual designation of young children born in their resident state as asylum seekers deviates from best practice in other EU states, where children are treated as family dependents.

http://irishexaminer.com/ireland/parents-forced-to-seek-asylum-for-irish-born-children-125617.html#ixzz0uFoGg01H

Fears for young asylum seekers

SEPARATED children who came to this country, often by being trafficked, are being moved into adult direct provision accommodation once they turn 18.

The use of direct provision – centres where asylum seekers are housed – has been widely condemned, and now concerns are being raised as young people are moved the moment they turn 18.

It is understood there are about 70 such young people in the system at the moment who live in Dublin, but who will be moved to centres around the country.

http://irishexaminer.com/ireland/fears-for-young-asylum-seekers-125618.html#ixzz0uFnMztu4

Deported homosexual asylum seeker seeks judicial review

A NIGERIAN national deported in 2009 after he unsuccessfully applied for asylum on the basis he faced persecution in his home country because he is homosexual will this week seek a judicial review in the High Court.

The case is being brought on the basis that Minister for Justice and Law Reform Dermot Ahern failed to take into account the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) guidelines on sexual orientation and gender identity in his refusal to revoke a deportation order in relation to Mobolaji Adams, who was refused asylum on the basis that if he practised “discretion” in Nigeria he would not be persecuted.

The case will be heard a week after five supreme court judges in the UK ruled gay and lesbian asylum seekers should not be expected to “exercise discretion” to avoid persecution.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0712/1224274518502.html

Supreme Court dismisses Izevbekhai appeal

Pamela Izevbekhai was seeking to appeal the decision by the Minister for Justice to deport her and her two daughters to Nigeria.

Her lawyers argued that a new EU directive allowed the minister to review her case, which centres on the risk she claims her daughters face from female genital mutilation if returned to Nigeria.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0709/izevbekhaip.html

Asylum seekers threathen hunger strike

Asylum seekers are set to protest after it was confirmed today that more than 150 of them are to be moved from the Mosney accommodation centre in Co Meath.

Some of the foreign nationals are now threatening to go on a hunger strike and to hold other demonstrations ahead of the move next week.

Many of the 800 residents at the facility at the former holiday camp at Laytown have lived there for years.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/govt-denies-asylum-seekers-move-contravenes-human-rights-464064.html#ixzz0seWK0bcQ

Asylum rate near lowest in Europe

ASYLUM seekers are less likely to be granted refugee status or other form of protection in Ireland than almost anywhere else in Europe, according to new EU figures.

The report shows that Ireland has one of the worst records in the EU for granting asylum to refugees. Just 4% of asylum seekers here were granted protection last year – the second lowest rate of any of the 27 EU countries. Only Greece has a poorer record, with just 1% of applicants being granted asylum there.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/asylum-rate-near-lowest-in-europe-122993.html#ixzz0rWVHE22e

Concern over refusal of refugees

THE Irish Refugee Council said a study needed to be carried out to see why Ireland accepted so few asylum seekers, writes Shane Hickey.

It said just 4pc of those who applied here for refugee status here were given the go-ahead.

Yesterday, the agency marked World Refugee Day with a number of events in Dublin.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/concern-over-refusal-of-refugees-2227342.html

Criticism over lack of privacy for asylum seekers

Asylum seekers living in hostels for several years are facing significant mental stress

PERPETUA LOST her twins last month. She was six months pregnant when she miscarried, and believes the stress of living at the Eglinton Hotel – a 235-bed hostel for asylum seekers in Galway – contributed to the death of her boys.

“I was living in a small room with my five-year-old daughter, another mother, and her 1½-year-old son. It was impossible to get any sleep or rest. The young boy would often wake us up, or the television was left on. It was very tiring,” she claims.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0618/1224272794047.html

Tribunal rejects 92% of refugee appeals

THE REFUGEE Appeals Tribunal rejected 92 per cent of the appeals it ruled on last year, which marks a fifth successive annual rise in the rejection rate for asylum appeals.

The tribunal affirmed 2,987 decisions of the Refugee Applications Commissioner in 2009 and set aside 266 decisions. Almost half the successful appeals against decisions not to grant refugee status (50) were lodged by Iraqis.

The tribunal overturned 7 per cent of decisions not to grant refugee status to people from Moldova and 6 per cent of decisions to people from Zimbabwe and DR Congo. It accepted 3 per cent of appeals lodged by Nigerians and Pakistanis respectively, according to the tribunal’s 2009 annual report released yesterday.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0511/1224270128837.html

Criticism of conditions in asylum hostels

AN organisation which works with asylum seekers in Limerick has hit out at the living conditions in hostels.

Ms McHugh said: "In one city centre hostel, which was a hotel, there are four to six people living in rooms. The people living in the rooms come from different countries and speak different languages. There has to be a health and safety issue with these kind of numbers in the same room. The Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) seem to think this is all right and complies with regulations.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/criticism-of-conditions-in-asylum-hostels-119427.html#ixzz0nY8vJ7aM

75% of applications for asylum here rejected

THE GOVERNMENT rejected three-quarters of the 4,040 asylum applications it considered last year, which is slightly higher than the average rejection rate in the EU.

Some 1,030 people were given positive decisions, providing them with the legal right to remain in the Republic. The vast majority of successful applicants (885) were allowed to stay in the country for humanitarian reasons, such as having an Irish citizen child. Some 105 people got refugee status and 40 people were awarded subsidiary protection, according to the EU statistics agency, Eurostat

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0505/1224269734936.html

Two-thirds of refugees claiming to be Somalian are lying

ALMOST two-thirds of asylum seekers who claimed to be from war-torn Somalia last year were found to be lying.

The immigration authorities mounted a special operation, which involved inviting the "Somali" nationals to do interviews with a language analyst, and checking their applications against the British authorities' database.

They found that 61pc of the 104 applicants who last year said they were from Somalia had applied for visas in Britain under a different nationality.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/twothirds-of-refugees-claiming-to-be-somalian-are-lying-2163180.html