Visas for migrants who lose status problematic, Government says

Bridging visas for migrants who have lost their documented status would be "extremely problematic" and a possible incentive for illegal immigration, the Government has said.

The Migrants' Rights Centre of Ireland (MRCI) has said the current system is open to exploitation by unscrupulous employers and leaves thousands of migrants in a legal limbo if they lose their jobs. It is looking for a six-month bridging visa to allow undocumented migrants to regularise their status in Ireland.

The council intends to raise the issue with Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan in a meeting scheduled for early next month.

The Government is currently planning a new Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill which is due next year. An earlier version of the Bill, which failed to make it through the last Dáil before it was dissolved, allowed for a 90-day period of grace to allow migrant workers to get a new work permit. Under the current system, work visas and permits are tied to employers and workers face deportation if they are made redundant, dismissed or if their permits are not renewed after they expire.

Yesterday, the MRCI highlighted the cases of two women who face deportation after being promised a work permit on arrival in Ireland. Iryna Zmyeyevska left her job after feeling she was exploited during a year and a half working on a mushroom farm and was unable to return home for her mother's funeral because she was undocumented. Another woman, known only as Christine from South Africa, was fired when she raised the issue of her work permit she was promised by her employer with the Citizen's Information Centre.

MRCI co-ordinator Jacqueline Healy said it would be "blatant hypocrisy" by the Government not to support such a measure while it lobbied for even greater concessions from the US government for Irish emigrants in America. However, a statement from the Department of Justice said that the Minister is not considering a regularisation programme for any group of migrants and each case, where a migrant is seeking a new work permit, should be considered on its individual merits.

"Mass regularisation [ and a bridging visa would fall into this category] is extremely problematic in that it fails to take account of the merits of the individual case and also acts as a pull factor for future illegal migration," the statement concluded.

Ms Healy said a bridging visa would not amount to a mass regularisation programme, but would be based on transparent and fair criteria.

"It formalises what is already there on an ad hoc basis. I think the Minister will give it serious consideration once he sees that it is not a mass regularisation programme that we are talking about, but an individual procedure with clear and transparent criteria, " she added.