ALMOST 5,000 people have called a confidential helpline providing advice and a referral service for migrants seeking information on the immigration system in the first six months of the year.
The most common inquiry to the helpline run by the Immigrant Council of Ireland related to the residency rights for the parents of Irish citizen children with 791 calls logged between January 1st and July 1st.
A large number of these calls were made following the European Court of Justice’s ruling in the Zambrano case in February. In this landmark judgment the court found that a non-EU national parent of an EU citizen child has the right to reside within an EU member state and to be granted a work permit.
Denise Charlton, chief executive of the council, said yesterday the NGO had delivered a number of public information sessions at local level on the judgment in response to the large number of helpline calls.
“We received 325 queries from overseas callers this year, compared to 178 for the same time period last year,” she said.
In total the helpline dealt with 4,675 inquiries from 137 different nationalities in the first half of the year. The highest number of calls made to the helpline were made by Nigerians (452). Indians (379), Pakistanis (152) and South Africans (113) also made large numbers of calls.
Other issues cited by callers were:
* Renewal of status 323 calls;
* Leave to remain as a family member of a citizen of the European economic area;
* Work permits 232 calls;
* Leave to remain as a family member of an Irish national 214 calls;
* Family reunification 204 calls;
* Leave to remain on other grounds 196 calls;
* Long-term residency 174 calls;
* Visit visas 148 calls.
The number of calls received was similar to the volume of calls made in the same period last year.
Ms Charlton said the continuing large number of calls to the helpline showed that it is a “myth” to think that immigrants are “going home” due to the recession.