`Outreach' plan for asylum-seekers studied

The Eastern Health Board is considering the setting up of "outreach clinics" to reduce pressure on the Refugee Application Centre in Dublin, it emerged yesterday.

These clinics would involve community welfare officers and porters visiting areas where asylum-seekers live, effectively bringing the EHB's services from the Refugee Application Centre in Lower Mount Street to the asylum-seekers, rather than having them visit the centre.

Mr Ramon O'Reilly, SIPTU's representative for the centre's porters, described the proposal as "the best thing we heard", at a meeting between union officials and EHB management in Dublin yesterday.

The four-hour discussions between SIPTU and the EHB followed the withdrawal of services by the centre's seven porters yesterday morning. Their withdrawal meant a second day of limited services at the Lower Mount Street centre.

The porters claimed that, although the number of community welfare officers is to be increased, there had been no consultation with them about their staffing levels.

The EHB committed itself on Tuesday to increasing the number of community welfare officers at the centre by 10 and to finding extra building space for the centre's work, following the withdrawal of services by community welfare officers that morning.

At yesterday's meeting, it is understood, the board gave a commitment to providing three new porters for the centre. Full normal services will resume this morning.

Yesterday's dispute saw the centre opening over an hour late. About 100 people were queuing by 11 a.m. and then only first-time asylum applicants were dealt with. For a second morning people with welfare queries were not seen.

Mr O'Reilly and other portering staff met management at the unit and following progress in their talks, the unit resumed normal services at around noon.

Mr O'Reilly claims he had written to the Eastern Health Board in September warning of a "staffing crisis" at the centre. He says he also sought a meeting with the personnel officer, though the board made no response.

A spokeswoman for the EHB confirmed that a letter had been received from Mr O'Reilly on September 30th. She said, however, that it "concerned making a number of current temporary positions in the asylum-seekers' unit permanent", adding that the matter was "being dealt with".

It had been inevitable there would be a crisis, given the "lack of facilities and the huge numbers attending the unit", Mr O'Reilly said.

"My people are the first line in meeting refugees at the door and they are dealing with people who are tired, angry and frustrated. It is a stressful situation for the porters and one which is only getting worse."

A number of porters at the centre had been assaulted by refugees and asylum-seekers who were "angry and frustrated".

"While the closure did result in some increase in resources there continue to be serious health and safety concerns for all those visiting and working at the unit."

The numbers arriving in Ireland seeking asylum have trebled over the past year, from an average of 300-400 a month early in the year to 1,000 last month. The Refugee Application Centre, which was opened in October 1998, was designed to deal with 500 per month.