International Protection Family Reunification Bill

Gerry Callaghan 2017-11-10

Posting from Senator Alice-Mary Higgins .

I am delighted that our International Protection (Family Reunification) Bill passed committee stage in the Seanad yesterday with support from Labour, Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil as well as Nasc Ireland, the Irish Refugee Council, Oxfam Ireland and Active Retirement Ireland.
This bill seeks to undo the unintended consequences of the International Protection Act 2015 which narrowed the definition of the family for refugees to mean a spouse and children under 18 and had devastating consequences for many who were separated from their parents, siblings and extended family networks.

This is good news, restricting the definition of family has the potential to cause great suffering.

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FAQ’s

We are a front line refugee support group mainly working on the Lissywollen Direct Provision site in Athlone. Our focus is on providing information and help to the 300 (on average) residents living there.

We also work on the Temple Direct Provision site in Horseleap, Moate.

Everyone in the DP sites in Athlone and Temple is what is described as a ‘Convention’ refugee. People who have arrived in Ireland under a United Nations resettlement program are known as ‘Programme’ refugees.

Convention refugees are people who have made their own way to Ireland and have applied for recognition of refugee status when they arrive.

Various official and unofficial routes and methods are used to travel to Ireland. These change continually, depending on weather conditions and enforcement levels at crossings.

On arrival people are normally housed for a few weeks in Baleskin, near Dublin airport. They are then dispersed to various direct provision centres around the country.

People can get protection if they meet the conditions set out in The United Nations Convention on Protection of Refugees.

See Definition of a Refugee

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