Leaving the Asylum Process – New Horizon Athlone

Congratulations!

You have passed through the most difficult stage of the process and now have your refugee status or subsidiary protection status recognised.

You now have the right to live and work in Ireland. In most cases, this will mean leaving direct provision accommodation to find work and somewhere to live. The change from direct provision to living independently will involve a great number of issues including housing, employment, health services, managing money and social welfare.

Now it’s time to start to rebuild your life. Make an appointment with the Citizens Information centre and start to work with an advice officer who will guide you on how to make the necessary applications.

For an overview of housing, finance, healthcare, education, employment and other issues see “Living in Ireland” produced by Depaul.

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