THE GOVERNMENT should improve its protection of asylum seekers, Travellers, migrant workers and their families and victims of human trafficking, according to the Irish Human Rights Commission.
The recommendations come in its report on Ireland’s record on racial discrimination, which is published today, Human Rights Day. The report has been sent to the UN committee responsible for monitoring Ireland’s record on racial discrimination. Ireland is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and will be examined on its record next February.
The IHRC calls for the restoration of resources needed to carry out the work of combating discrimination, which it says were severely cut in 2008.
Its president, Dr Maurice Manning, said: “Since Ireland last reported, the human rights and equality infrastructure that worked to promote multiculturalism and combat racism has been either disbanded or disabled . . .”
Among the proposals from the commission are the recognition of Travellers as an ethnic minority and the provision of good-quality halting sites by local authorities.
Dr Manning also called for greater transparency and fairness in how people are treated at the State’s borders, an increase in the direct provision payment of €19.10 a week and a shortening of the time taken to process applications.
He said the IHRC considers the requirement for foreign nationals to carry identification documents could lead to discriminatory treatment. Referring to migrant workers and their families, chief executive of the IHRC Eamonn Mac Aodha yesterday called for greater legislative and policy protections, and for family reunification to be legislated for in a way that was humane and expeditious and put the best interests of the child at its core.
The report coincdes with a Department of Foreign Affairs forum today on human rights.