Two-tier system for refugees unfair, says Creighton
LUCINDA Creighton has expressed concern that the Government’s refugee programme could lead to a ‘two-tiered system’ for refugees.
It was announced on Thursday that Ireland would be taking 4,000 refugees through existing agreements and the EU’s refugee programme.
However, NGOs have expressed concern that the incoming refugees would essentially be accommodated under Direct Provision-style circumstances.
The Renua leader said: ‘We have been told there will be a fast-track process, but we don’t know anything about how that will work. It’s not appropriate and it’s not desirable that we end up with a two-tiered system, where the refugees who are already in the country are treated in a slow, byzantine way and the new refugees who come in are treated in a fast track way.’
‘I think most right-thinking people would be very opposed to a Direct Provision-type scenario, where Syrian refugees would be essentially left to languish in these centres, where they have no capacity to contribute to the local community, to the local economy and are essentially just left in a kind of a limbo,’ said Ms Creighton. ‘It’s legitimate that the Irish Refugee Council would have major concerns about the Government’s capacity to do it, because obviously the Government’s record is so shocking.’
However, a spokesman for the Department of Justice said that the International Protection Bill would ‘streamline and expedite the process’ f or all refugees in Ireland.
‘The scheme was published in March with a view to enactment before the end of the year. In essence the plan is that it will streamline and expedite the process for all asylum seekers.’
Sue Conlon, CEO of the Irish Refugee Council, has also raised concerns that the new reception and orientation centres that the Government has proposed to establish are little more than Direct Provision under a different name.
Speaking on Morning Ireland, the CEO said: ‘We know that the title of these new centres is going to be called emergency reception and orientation centres, but going on invitation for expressions of i nterest f rom the Department of Justice in July, going from the one hotel we know that has been opened already, they are very similar establishments if not identical, to the ones we’ve come to know as Direct Provision.’