The Catholic bishops have condemned provisions in the new International Protection Act, signed into law by President Catherine Connolly this week, as “anti-family” and “overwhelmingly weighted towards firmness at the cost of fairness”.
Bishop Alan McGuckian, chair of the bishops’ Council for Migrants, Refugees and Justice and Peace, said they “deeply regret that the International Protection Act provides for the detention of children, even if it is only in exceptional circumstances and as a measure of last resort”.
He added: “Our council’s position accords with that of UNHCR – the UN Refugee Agency – in that children should not be detained for immigration-related reasons as per human rights law.”
The Government pushed the controversial legislation through the Oireachtas in recent weeks despite sharp criticism from Opposition parties and some NGOs. The law is intended to tighten up and restrict asylum processes, reacting to public concerns about migration which have inflamed politics in some EU countries in recent years.
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The council had “grave concerns that the new law is overwhelmingly weighted towards firmness at the cost of fairness”. The Act “limits access to oral appeals, introduces restrictions on the freedom of movement of applicants, and it greatly enhances Garda powers of arrest and detention”.
There was also “a lack of clarity around procedural safeguards in age assessments and protections for vulnerable applicants in the asylum border procedure,” he said.
The council also “strongly opposes controversial new family reunification restrictions”, McGuckian said. “These measures, which introduce a two-year waiting period before beneficiaries of international protection can apply for reunification, are anti-family. It is neither fair, nor just, to significantly restrict the ability of refugees – persons granted protection by the Irish State – to be reunited with their loved ones.”
[ Concerns raised over ‘gaps’ in International Protection BillOpens in new window ]
While “advocates have called for many years to speed up case processing and eliminate lengthy delays in determining applications for international protection”, the council believed “this should not be at the expense of due process”. It urged “adequate resourcing of the Legal Aid Board to ensure timely access to legal counselling and representation in asylum procedures when the EU Pact [on Migration and Asylum] commences in June.”
Although Connolly signed the Bill into law this week, having referred it to the Council of State, she expressed “serious concerns” about the new legislation.
It allows for the introduction of the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum next June. In adopting the pact, the Government has said it is a “firm but fair” approach to addressing the challenges of managing migration and asylum in Ireland.
