What Languages do people speak?

Posted by Gerry Callaghan on 2018-03-04

The working language on site is English.

Most people will have a basic understanding of spoken English but their abilities to read and write English are likely to be limited.

Other languages include French, Arabic, Urdu, Farsi and Russian. The languages spoken tend to change as the population of the site changes.

Young people on site tend to speak up to four languages fluently.

Be careful about using ‘unofficial’ interpreters for anything that could be confidential.

Permalink

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