Madam, – Legal Affairs Correspondent Carol Coulter writes about how the recent Supreme Court judgment on asylum judicial review will help ensure “the highest and most transparent standards will be applied in dealing with asylum seekers” (Law Matters, February 1st).
I would like to draw attention to present standards the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform is employing for people who are due to renew their permission in 2010 to remain in the State under the Irish Born Child 2005 Scheme.
Notices were issued by the department in December 2009, that all immigrants who were granted permission to remain in the State under the Irish Born Child 2005 scheme had to renew their permission in 2010, within 14 days of their expiry date.
Immigrants went to the designated offices to renew their papers in January, 2010, as advised. However, they were told that there were no procedures yet in place to process their paperwork. Practically two months into 2010 and there is still no system or procedure in place to carry out what is a relatively straightforward, administrative task. Hundreds of people under the above Irish Born Child Scheme have subsequently become illegal since January 2010.
Many workers have lost their jobs as employers are no longer willing to employ them as they are now deemed to be illegal. Doctors, nurses, domestic workers, IT personnel, engineers will continue to lose their employment over the next few weeks as their paperwork is not being processed. There is the additional risk to some of deportation as the ID that they present if stopped on the street is deemed to be illegal.
Ms Coulter’s suggestion regarding the highest standards that will be applied to asylum-seekers applications in the future is optimistic given that the same department had three years to come up with a system to manage renewal of paperwork arising from a scheme that was put in place in 2005. And as for transparency, the only information available to people is a blank stare from someone behind an official desk or an out-of-date notice from 2009 on a Government website advising people to renew their papers or risk deportation. – Yours, etc,