As was heavily leaked in recent days, the Government will bring forward legislation in the new year to restrict the accommodation and social welfare benefits currently available to Ukrainian refugees.
There is some unease in Government about the move, but a general agreement across the parties that something must be done to dissuade Ukrainians from continuing to travel to Ireland at a rate of some 500 a week.
Ministers have been fond of trumpeting Ireland’s generosity and it is certainly true that Ireland has – for its size – shouldered a disproportionately large part of the European refugee crisis. So they are not happy about having to take action intended to stem that flow.
The advice that the system is creaking at the seams was clear even before the authorities had to start telling male asylum seekers (from countries other than Ukraine) two weeks ago that there was no room at the inn, and they would have to make do with tents and sleeping bags.
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Ministers were also told that slashing social welfare and accommodation benefits would lead to a reduction in the numbers of Ukrainians coming here, thus relieving pressure on the system – allowing new accommodation coming on stream to be made available for asylum seekers. Ministers are not saying directly that the Government wants to dissuade Ukrainians from coming so that it can deal with asylum seekers from other countries and not have them sleeping in tents on the streets. But that is what the policy is.
Having been approved by Cabinet on Tuesday, the required legislation will now be prepared as a matter of urgency and presented to the Dáil when it returns from its Christmas break in mid-January. The changes should be in place by the end of January, they said.
Is there not a danger that the proposed changes would prompt an influx of refugees in the month and a half before the law is changed? Officials played down the prospect. Yet it is clear that elements of the plan are still being worked on. For example, it is expected that a small number of new “arrival centres” will be opened to house newly-arrived Ukrainians for the 90 days they are entitled to State accommodation. But nobody was able say yesterday where they would be.
Given the new prominence – and the combustible nature – of the immigration/asylum issue in politics, everybody is tiptoeing around this. In the Dáil Sinn Féin indicated its support for the Government policy, not something you see every day.
But it is clear that immigration policy is tightening. That process is likely to continue.
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