Thank you, Chairman. Integrating Ireland, the national network of refugee, asylum seeker and immigrant support groups, would like to thank the joint committee for giving us this opportunity to present our opinions, concerns and suggestions on the Immigration Bill 2002 and the Supreme Court judgment of 23 January in the case concerning the residency rights of non-national parents of Irish born children. We think it is very important to understand that the two issues we will address concern people - human beings - and not just numbers. That will enable us to better understand the anxieties, fears, stress and despair in which asylum seekers and other concerned people live and will lead us to make the right decisions.
As somebody who left his home country and went through the asylum process in Ireland, I can say that seeking asylum consists of a long series of humiliations, stress, fear and questions about the future. One's two feet are not on the ground and one cannot plan anything or make any important decisions for oneself or one's family. Somebody else directs your life and makes decisions that affect you and your family now and in the future.
I now turn to the carrier sanctions set out in the Immigration Bill 2001. From an international viewpoint, Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that each person has the right to seek asylum. Article 31(1) of the 1951 United Nations convention on refugees recognises that some refugees may not be in a position to carry valid travel documents as circumstances my have prevented them from obtaining them prior to leaving. That is why Ireland should not impose assumptions on people who are obliged to flee their country for safety or liberty reasons without any proper documentation. People who need protection will always need to move from a country of persecution to countries that can protect them. If Ireland, a country known as democratic and safe, started punishing those who do not carry proper documentation and returned them to face persecution, their lives would be endangered and they would do whatever was necessary to gain safety at all costs, even with the service of smugglers and traffickers. This could lead to tragedy like the one that occurred in Wexford in 2002.
As legislators you must surely recognise that Ireland has an obligation to fulfil its commitment to apply international law to the best international standards and not to expel or return refugees to situations of persecution or danger, as formulated by Article 32 of the United Nations convention on refugees, which deals with the issue of non-refoulement. Articles 31 and 32 of the convention clearly suggest that liability of carriers should not apply in respect of asylum seekers and refugees. The experience of other European Union countries, such as France, shows that carrier sanctions have had little impact on the numbers of immigrants without proper documentation. Carrier sanctions imply that carriers and their employees, with or without training, are effectively forced into the role of immigration officials. Private companies should not fulfil the state’s role in determining asylum claims.
The Refugee Act 1996 was amended to reject applicants for refugee status who fail to attend their scheduled interview. We consider this to be incompatible with the refugee definition in the 1951 United Nations convention on refugees, which states that determination of refugee status must be conducted through substantive interview. Besides the holding of a proper and substantive interview, is there any other possible way of knowing whether a person can be recognised as a refugee under the terms of the United Nations convention? According to the national law, the answer is "No". A non-attendance at interview can then be considered as an abandoned or a closed case and should lead to withdrawal by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform of the possibility of recognising the applicant as a refugee under the terms of the convention. In view of this, we suggest that the Department allow for the possibility of such cases re-entering the asylum process, as suggested by section 17(7) of the Immigration Bill, which deals with the Minster's consent to make a further application for a declaration.
Integrating Ireland also considers that the time restriction of five working days for the applicants to notify the asylum authorities is impractical as it does not take into consideration unforeseen circumstances, such as hospitalisation or obtaining legal advice. We suggest that an appropriate and reasonable timeframe should be applied that will consider the interests of all concerned, including asylum seekers, lawyers and State officials. Aperiod of ten to 15 days would be reasonable. Integrating Ireland suggests that the prioritisation of certain caseloads by the refugee application commissioner and chairman of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal be used as a purely administrative device with no negative impact on the merit of individual claims.
Integrating Ireland has identified three different categories of non-national parents of Irish born children concerned with the Supreme Court decision of 23 January 2002 in the case concerning the residency rights of such parents. First, people who applied for residency before the Supreme Court judgment should be granted residency without distinction as failure to do so can lead to other administrative problem. Second, those who cannot apply following the judgment due to the withdrawal by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform of the application form for residency should be allowed to apply, especially as the judgment never predicted the making of such applications. Third, those who will have Irish born children in the future should be permitted the option of proactively applying for residency without having to be threatened by deportation.
Many questions relating to the protection of children's rights, which should be accorded priority, still remain without answers. For example, what would happen if a non-national parent is deported with his or her Irish child carrying an Irish passport and an immigration officer of the parent's home country refuses to let the child enter as he or she is not a citizen of the country and does not have a valid visa? Has any mechanism been established by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform to ensure that another class of excluded and discriminated citizen is not created? What guarantees will the Department make regarding the protection of the rights of these Irish children abroad since they can be subjected to human rights abuses, such as the lack of freedom to practice their religion in the country of their parents?
This is one question. Another question is what would happen if in future teenagers who were deported with their parents returned to Ireland and sued the State for violation of their constitutional rights? The conditions and criteria for implementing this judgment are not clearly defined and transparent and are hard to handle. Integrating Ireland suggests that a moratorium on deportations should be put in place until the situation is clarified. After all, the implementation of sizeable legislation such as the Refugee Act 1996 was suspended for the almost similar reason of practical difficulties in its implementation. Why not this?
Integrating Ireland believes that for such a rich country like Ireland immigration raises two main questions. One is how to control people who enter the country and the other is how to integrate those already here. The decision and policy makers seem to lack vision and visibility on the future of integration of newcomers. The policy is about getting rid of as many of them as possible. It is obvious that the creation and establishment of a coherent integration policy which would give options and visibility to the Government for better and effective inclusion of refugees and migrants in Ireland would encourage a more positive approach to immigration at all stages of the process and would lay the ground for an inclusive and open society which can benefit from the variety of cultures, knowledge and skills that come with immigration. Integrating Ireland is ready to take part in this process. We think that in less than ten years Ireland will be proud of those of its children who are born of non-national parents, provided they are given a chance to express themselves.
