World Refugee Day 2009

Yesterday (18th June 2009) was World Refugee Day and Dublin’s Africa Centre was host to a talk given by Mr. Wale Mogaji (Refugee Information Service) and Mr. Robin Hanan (Irish Refugee Council). We were all welcomed to the Centre whereupon the ever congenial Mr. Eric Yao (Africa Centre) gave a short introduction to those assembled.

Mr Mogaji was first to speak and he informed us on the restrictions and difficulties that the average asylum seeker in Ireland has to experience from day to day: A weekly sum of €19 is paid to each person seeking asylum. The stress felt by refugees is having a detrimental effect on the mental health – a problem bad enough for legitimate citizens.

A disturbing reality that refugees are saddled with is qualifications. Many who flee to Ireland, to avoid repressive regimes where torture or death is commonplace, arrive with good educational skills which normally could be used to gain meaningful employment. However due to the government’s asylum policies such people are unable, moreover are not allowed, to put those skills to use by working and contributing to the Irish economy. Mr Mogaji cites the example of an engineer who is now roaming the Dublin streets where normally he would be involved in a thriving career. But is disallowed, as an asylum seeker, from working here.

Continuing his talk, Mr Mogaji explains the sad reality of having to seek asylum in today’s Ireland and the overcrowding and lack of dignity afforded to the average refugee holed up in Mosney or the like. One could despair at hearing this sad, hopeless reality and the way these people are treated by our government. Our politicians are not engaging enough to make a difference to those living a life of asylum. For it is a life, a career, wasted. Almost like being in prison despite not committing a crime.

The system is, in Mogaji’s words, becoming a massive social problem, one in which there are no winners. It’s a lose - lose situation and nothing is being done to explain to the general public of the refugee crisis. For it is a crisis. Only this week in Belfast it was reported that some Romanian families were subjected to racism, this is not confined to Belfast.

There are some very negative perceptions among some of the public, here, regarding asylum seekers and these people seem to be the whipping boys of our society. Mr Mogaji winds up his speech by telling us of the devastating loneliness and isolation of the refugee in Ireland in 2009 and it is a most bleak, depressing scenario. Enough to break the hardest of hearts.

This upsetting reality was given a more optimistic examination by the next speaker, Mr Robin Hanan. He told the gathered listeners, upstairs in the Africa Centre, of his dealing with the Irish government. The asylum seeker was, is, unwelcome here and all the actions of this state are to make Ireland as “unattractive” as possible to the refugee. They are deliberately excluded from Irish society. Hanan says creating poverty and disempowerment among asylum seekers is a “deliberate government decision”.

Like the first speaker, Mr Hanan mentions mental health as being a problem for those searching for refugee status. He goes on to say that the ‘Direct Provision’ system, in Ireland, is costing the exchequer more than the existing social welfare system. It is a shameful state of affairs and desperately needs to be addressed by those in authority. The despicable treatment of vulnerable children by the Christian Brothers and the Industrial schools are now, rightly, being addressed. It is time that those seeking asylum are afforded a similar slice of justice as we move into the second decade of the 21st century. That responsibility should not be ignored.
© Ian Callagy 2009