Nine campaigning and refugee groups have come together as the National Federation of Campaigns against Racism to co-ordinate anti-racism and asylum-seeker support work, reports Andy Pollak.
They include the Association of Nigerian Asylum-Seekers in Ireland, the Community of Romanians in Ireland, the Anti-Racism Campaign, Immigrant Solidarity in Cork and the Roma Support Group in Monaghan.
The federation's first joint action will be a protest next Friday at 1 p.m. outside the Department of Justice's "one-stop shop" for refugees and asylum-seekers in Lower Mount Street in Dublin.
The federation will be demanding that the Government treats asylum-seekers "sympathetically rather than viewing them as a horde of threatening invaders"; allows them to live "without the constant threat of deportation"; grants them the right to work; drops its "draconian anti-immigration legislation"; promotes racial diversity in Irish society and actively campaigns against racism.