A residential centre in Dublin funded by the Health Service Executive (HSE) for young asylum seekers has been operating illegally for the past year after failing to meet basic standards of care. Carl O'Brien, Social Affairs Correspondent, reports.
Internal documents obtained by The Irish Times show that, during this time, social workers have expressed concern over children going missing, rape allegations and violence within the unit.
The centre is privately operated and accommodates 24 young people. It was inspected a year ago by the HSE, but failed to meet the necessary standards for it to be registered. Under childcare legislation, it is against the law to operate a centre not registered. The HSE continues to fund it.
Staff shortages have hit the centre, according to the centre's unpublished annual report for the period between April 2005 and March 2006. In one case, staff requested an extra childcare worker to mind a 15-year-old Somali girl who had been rescued from a brothel after being trafficked into the country. The request was refused, according to social workers, and the girl disappeared a day later.
Local gardaí have also expressed concern to the HSE over children disappearing from the centre, according to staff.
A HSE spokesman said the centre was not registered. "A series of measures, including the recruitment of a full team of childcare professionals, is to be initiated in order to bring the provision of care to a satisfactory standard," he said.
The Child Care Act (1991) prohibits the establishment or running of any unregistered children's residential centre and requires that no person should should take charge of such a centre, according to Child Law, an influential work by solicitor Geoffrey Shannon. The maximum penalty for infringement of the law is a fine of €1,260 or a jail sentence of 12 months, or both.
This latest development comes at a time of widespread concern over standards of care for young people seeking asylum.
As estimated 250 children have gone missing from State care over the past five years, some of whom are believed to have been trafficked into the country. Unlike residential centres for Irish children in care, residential centres for young asylum seekers are not subject to inspections by the Irish Social Services Inspectorate (ISSI).
Lack of funding means social workers are not able to follow up on all cases of separated children who are reunified with their families, or people claiming to be their families, according to the HSE.
While there have been developments in the service - such as new facilities for 12 to 16 year olds - the HSE has been unhappy with the standard of care and the levels of Government funding available to it.
Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act last year show the HSE was forced to take staff from other parts of the service to provide "a minimum standard of care" for young asylum seekers.
In the main, funding requests to the department since 2001 "remained unanswered despite repeated submissions".