Hello Everyone,
I’m already two weeks in working at the Free Legal Advice Centres (FLAC). For those of you who don’t know about FLAC, it is an independent human rights organization dedicated to the realization of equal access to justice for all. Priority areas of FLAC include: civil legal aid, social welfare law reform, and debt law reform, but FLAC offers many other kinds of advices as well (such as divorce and prisoner’s cases).
Today, I learned about an organization designed to assist asylum seekers. Here is a summary of a written report I have produced! Happy reading!
Reception and Integration Agency: Annual Report 2013
The Reception and Integration Agency (IRA) manages the accommodation and ancillary services to asylum seekers under the Direct Provision system that provides asylum seeker residents with full board accommodation free of utility or other cost. Essentially, the RIA ensures that necessities of residents are met during the period in which their applications for international protections are being processed; whereas, they would have been treated as homeless a decade ago.
There has been a significant decline in the number of new asylum applicants arriving in Ireland and the number of persons RIA is accommodating. A decline of 92% of new asylum applicants (from 11, 634 in 2002 to 946 in 2013) are recorded; thus, it also resulted in a decline of 37% (2,642 persons) from 2008 to 2013 in the numbers being accommodated by the RIA. More than 50% of the applications for declaration as a refugee come from ‘other’ countries and Nigeria is second largest. In which many of the cases are given negative recommendation and failed in processing for completion.
Currently, there are 34 RIA housing centres in 16 counties accommodating 4,360 asylum seekers. Many of these residents are of 26-35 years of age who are single males or widows with no children. Furthermore, 26 centres are commercially owned while 7 centres are state owned (located in: Clare, Cork, Killarney, Tralee, and Athlone). Most RIA residents reside in Dublin, Cork, and Meath. Currently, there are 4,360 occupants out of the contracted capacity of 5,047. Overall, RIA spends about 55.228 million Euros during 2013 for centres, preschool, electricity, gas, and transportation.
In addition to accommodate asylum seekers, RIA provides human trafficking victims safe accommodations. For instance, 48 victims of human trafficking in 2012, 8 of which were asylum seekers, were assisted. Moreover, children of asylum seekers are granted free access to primary and post-primary education and transportation. Many of the children are ages 5-12 years of age are currently attending primary school. Hence, children of asylum seekers residing in RIA centres are linked with local schools, while adult asylum seekers are able to obtain free access to adult literacy and English classes if they do not have an entitlement to work.
A Government decision established in 2 March, 2004 put forth a responsibility on the RIA to assist with the return of destitute citizens of certain EU states. Individuals are accessed by the Asylum Seeker and New Communities Unit of the Department of Social Protection and referred to RIA. Referrals can be made from local community welfare officers and employment exchanges around the country; however, this is rare. Though, RIA does not accept direct referrals from Embassies, third party or NGO groups, or by individuals themselves. Additionally, the RIA is not responsible for housing homeless non-Irish nationals. The role of RIA is to provide voluntary transport back to their home State for destitute Accession Countries 12 nationals. If needed, RAI will accommodate the person(s) for one or two nights in Dublin Centre and provide them with transport home as soon as possible. In 2013, there were 323 return flights for citizens (a majority consisting of Romanians).
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