'The only thing we have is education. We don't have family'

A change of Government policy on asylum seekers means teenagers without families are being uprooted from their schools in the year of their Leaving Cert and dispersed around the country, writes JAMIE SMYTH, Social Affairs Correspondent

COMING OF AGE is a challenging time for any child, but for Olu, a Nigerian asylum seeker whose parents are dead, his 18th birthday was no time for celebration. His birthday present from the Irish State was a dispersal order, which will force him to leave his home in Dublin next month and move to an adult refugee centre in Newbridge, Co Kildare. He will also have to leave his school, O’Connell Secondary School, in North Richmond Street, before he enters sixth year, a critical year for Olu as he is due to sit his Leaving Cert exams.

“I love my school. It has been very good for me and people have been so helpful here. I made Irish friends and friends from all over the world. They have helped me with my English and I’m doing really well. I don’t want to leave now,” says Olu.

He is one of up to 60 “separated children” – children who have fled their own country without any family or parents to claim asylum here – who will be removed from their hostels and schools in Dublin this year and sent to refugee centres around the country.

Most of these children are moved when they turn 18, which is the age when responsibility for them passes from the Health Service Executive (HSE) to the Reception and Integration Agency (RIA), an agency of the Department of Justice that deals with asylum seekers. Some children under the age of 18 will also move out of Dublin this year because of a further plan to close all hostels for separated children.

“I am being sent to another hostel with adult asylum seekers in Kildare in June. I told my social worker that I don’t want to leave because this means I can’t stay at my school. Because I am already 18 I may not get a place in a new school,” says Olu, who wants to study accountancy or law at university.

O’Connell Secondary School, whose past pupils include broadcaster Pat Kenny, actor Colm Meaney and former taoiseach Seán Lemass, has been radically transformed in recent years, attracting large numbers of immigrants living in inner-city Dublin. About 70 per cent of its 350 pupils come from abroad, and it is able to offer these international students a range of specialised services, from counselling to English-language support.

“It’s like a mini-UN here. And that is very important because it means when children come into the school they are not alone. We show them solidarity,” says the school’s principal, Gerry Duffy, who is critical of the dispersal policy for 18-year-olds. “This policy came out of the blue just before Christmas, and we’ve lost three or four kids already. It is very disconcerting for the kids to move just before their Leaving Certificate. These kids have been through enough already.”

The dispersal policy for separated children was put in place by the Department of Justice in January 2009 and dispersals have increased over recent months. A memo, Policy on the Accommodation of “Aged-out Minors” in Refugee Integration Centres, obtained by The Irish Times, explains the rationale behind the policy change. It aims to:

1) Alleviate the pressure on bed space, health, education, therapeutic and welfare services in Dublin. These services are “extremely busy with long waiting times”, according to the memo.

2) Reduce the “negative influence that a large city environment can have on vulnerable adults”, including “exploitation, abuse, drug use and crime”.

3) Re-balance policy “in the interest of fairness”, as adult asylum seekers do not have the option to stay in Dublin.

The memo says the RIA recognises that “aged-out minors” are a vulnerable group and recommends that they should not be accommodated at all-male refugee centres. Where possible, they should be accommodated at refugee centres in towns and cities with access to education facilities, such as Limerick, Cork, Sligo, Galway or Athlone, it says.

For Abdullah (19), an asylum seeker from Somalia who now has refugee status, the RIA’s dispersal policy was very disruptive. Last year, over a six-month period, he was moved from Dublin to Limerick to Killarney and back to Dublin. “It was very difficult for me,” he says. “I went to every school in Limerick to get a place, but was told there were no places available. After three or four months living in Limerick they sent me to live in Killarney, where I was supposed to have a place. But the headmaster at the school told me all the subjects were full. In the end the RIA sent me back to Dublin and I’d missed two months of the school year.

“It’s a bad policy because it makes your life very confusing and you have to leave your friends.”

The Ombudsman for Children, Emily Logan, who last year published a highly critical report on the standard of care provided for separated children by the HSE, says the dispersal policy should be abolished for 18-year-olds still at school.

“I think these children should be allowed to stay in their schools until they complete their Leaving Certificates,” she says. “We have to look at these children with a measure of humanity. From the research we have, completed education is very important for them. They don’t have parents, so schools help to build support networks and friendships.”

So far, Logan has received two complaints from children affected by the policy.

Aidan Waterstone, director of childcare services at the HSE, said it was Government policy to transfer children from HSE care to the RIA at 18.

“There are monthly meetings between the HSE and RIA, and there is a lot of flexibility to ensure children aren’t moved at an inappropriate time . . . While it is disruptive, it is not inappropriate,” he says.

In a statement, the Department of Justice says that 59 “aged-out minors” were considered for transfer from HSE accommodation to refugee accommodation in 2009. When dispersed to RIA accommodation, the 18-year-olds are placed in local schools to enable them to complete their Leaving Cert exams, according to the statement.

At St Joseph’s Secondary School in Stanhope Street, Dublin 7, Carolynn (17) and Esther (18) are dreading the end of the school year next month.

“I’ve been told I am moving to Galway and am really concerned about leaving this school. I have many friends here and I don’t think it will be easy for me to start a new life,” says Esther, who is from Congo. “English is not my first language, so to change books in a new school mid-Leaving Cert is very difficult for me.”

Carolynn, who is from Kenya, says the Government should at least let her finish her exams before they move her. “It is not easy to come to a new country when you have no guardian and no one loves you. Then when you get settled down, they uproot you again,” she says. “The asylum process is very stressful. It is not easy just sitting in a hostel. Going to school really helps us mentally.”

Tommy Coyle, principal of St Joseph’s, believes the policy of dispersal is driven by a desire to save money. He is also highly critical of the official attitude to the children affected.

“Even the term ‘dispersal policy’ is like something you would hear during the Nazi time – why don’t they even use language like ‘relocate’? Then there is that other phrase they use: ‘aged-out minors’,” he says.

Coyle has teamed up with other Dublin principals through the secondary schools network to lobby for a change of policy. “For a normal family to uproot itself and move home is traumatic. But for a child on his/her own to be moved around like this is even more difficult,” he says.

Esther and Carolynn are hoping they will be allowed to stay to complete their exams.

“You have to understand, the only thing we have is education. We don’t have family,” says Carolynn. “If I get my Leaving Certificate I can put that piece of paper into my pocket and take it with me wherever I go. It is the only thing that is yours, no one can take it from you. I don’t want to have to start over again in a new school or city.”