The original decision to seek accommodation outside Dublin for asylum seekers was regarded by many as being motivated by a genuine desire to deal with the severe pressure on housing and other accommodation in Dublin arising from the very significant increase in the numbers seeking asylum here over the past two years. However, the way in which the decision is being implemented, combined with the penal rules regarding supplementary welfare entitlements for asylum seekers has created conditions of isolation, hardship and distress for many of those involved. It is suspected that the move is part of a wider plan to discourage asylum seekers from coming to this country in the first place.
Seeking accommodation outside Dublin might be acceptable in principle if it were a totally voluntary arrangement. However, people are being sent compulsorily from Dublin, generally to hostels which are very often located in small towns remote from urban centres. People dispersed in this way suffer in two ways. They are deprived of the opportunity for intercultural liaison with others from their own countries or from same ethnic groups while they have little opportunity for real engagement with the local communities with which they have been placed. Given that many of the small towns to which they have been sent have very poor public transport facilities and asylum seekers do not have the resources to acquire their own transport, they are virtually incarcerated. They are cut off from legal advice and from the back-up services provided by organisations such as the Irish Refugee Council.
Approximately 100 asylum seekers are located near the beautiful but remote village of Glengariff in County Cork. They are more than three miles from the village, with only one shop, very limited health facilities and no bus service. There is a security guard on their accommodation. This system could best be described as a form of benign internment.
More than 800 asylum seekers have been relocated in this way and these include a small number of unaccompanied minors. Asylum seekers who are unaccompanied minors require particular care and attention. This will be acknowledged by the Minister of State with responsibility for the family. The Irish Refugee Council which has expressed concern about the inadequacy of services for minors has expressed particular alarm at the policy of dispersing unaccompanied minors in this way.
The mean and parsimonious approach to supplementary welfare payments has added to the difficulties of those relocated in this way. This has left 800 people isolated and virtually penniless. The system is regarded by the community welfare officers who are responsible for implementing it as so unfair and discriminatory that they have taken the unprecedented step of threatening to stop implementing it. A spokesman for the community welfare officers, members of IMPACT and SIPTU, said last week, "If there is no movement at Government level we cannot guarantee the staff will continue to operate such a policy".
Asylum seekers have been entitled to the most basic level of supplementary welfare payments, on the same basis as anyone else who finds himself without income. However, those relocated to accommodation outside Dublin are being restricted to a measly £15 per week or £2.14 per day. Has the Minister of State any idea what it is like to survive on £2.14 discretionary spending? It would not pay for a bus fare, a haircut or a cinema ticket. It would not buy much more than a packet of sweets. The Labour Party believes the social welfare system should be administered on the basis of need and not of nationality or ethnicity. There was a time when Fianna Fáil also believed in that principle.
The approach of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to asylum seekers is illustrated by his reply to a parliamentary question I tabled today about a man who has been living and working as a translator with the support services in Wexford since June 1997. I asked the Minister if he would review his appeal. The man is a volunteer with organisations dealing with refugees and asylum seekers in Wexford and is a qualified carpenter. The Minister's response was harsh and uncaring but very blunt. Concluding a long reply the Minister said: "The person referred to is due to be removed from the State today". I ask the Minister of State to put a human face on this inhuman policy.
