Group to review ban on work for asylum seekers

The current ban on work and further education for asylum seekers is to be reviewed by the new Government working group on direct provision, according to Minister of State for Equality Aodhán Ó Ríordáin.

“We stick out in European terms as to what we allow asylum seekers to do,” Mr Ó Ríordáin said.

The current direct provision system “won’t be abolished” but can be made “an awful lot more humane” and “by this time next year we’ll be happier and prouder of the system than we are now,” he said.

The State had made “huge mistakes” regarding direct provision and “we have to rectify them,” he said.

The Minister was speaking on the Inside Politics podcast yesterday where he discussed the controversial system which currently provides accommodation for over 4,300 asylum seekers.

Average wait time

The average wait time while their applications are being processed is over four years. Asylum seekers are not allowed work during this time and are instead given €19.10 a week.

At present Ireland and Lithuania are the only two European countries with such a ban in place. Earlier this year Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald said this arrangement was not going to be reversed.

Under the terms of the new protection Bill, Mr Ó Ríordáin said all new asylum seekers will have their applications processed within six months.

Meanwhile, the Government working group will review the conditions and regulation of the direct provision system. Regarding the right to work issue, Mr Ó Ríordáin said he personally felt it was “unreasonable of us to step outside the European norm . . . in most European countries they have allowed asylum seekers to work after a certain amount of time.”

The Minister also described visiting different direct provision centres around the country and said there were some where he “wouldn’t genuinely, hand-on-heart spend one night there”. He said he was struck by “the experiences of children living in the centres”.

“Public opinion is with the need to investigate what is happening in direct provision centres and also to change it.”