Overcrowded conditions, inadequate cooking facilities and restrictions on access to education and employment. These are just a few factors that showcase the reality of life in direct provision centres since the system was introduced to temporarily accommodate migrants in 1999.
The release of the government’s White Paper on ending direct provision, which commits to dissolving the existing direct provision structure by 2024 and establishing a new international protection support service, has been welcomed by the larger community as a sign of progress. However, the plan has been subject to scepticism over whether it will truly enable effective change in a timespan of merely three years.
Aideen Roche is a policy officer for Doras, an advocacy group that assists migrants in Ireland. She believes immediate action is required in order to ensure the goals of the White Paper are met.
“The main focus for a lot of people will be clearing the backlog so that at least the people who are currently in the system will be given an opportunity to move out and start their lives,” Roche says.
The new approach in terms of accommodation for incoming migrants is split into two distinct phases. Individuals will reside in one of six new integration and reception centres to be built across Ireland for a maximum of four months while their application is being processed, before being moved into long term community housing.
The type of accommodation allocated will vary – private tenancies will be prioritised for families, while rent a room schemes will be aimed at single people. All properties will operate on a not -for -profit basis, an important distinction from the existing system.
However, there has been criticism that the accommodation overhaul, which evidently will benefit incoming migrants, may overlook those who have been residing in direct provision centres for a long time. Roche believes that their basic needs must be given equal footing to those of future candidates, particularly in the context of the pandemic.
“It took a very long time for the government to acknowledge that people in direct provision centres were much more vulnerable to COVID-19 as a result of the congregated settings they’re forced to live in,” she says. Social distancing was impossible due to overcrowded conditions in many centres.
The publication of the White Paper on ending direct provision was primarily motivated by the Day Report- drawn up in consultation with the Irish Refugee Council (IRC) and Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland (MASI) -issued late last year. It recommended transforming the approach to international protection by mid-2023, an even more radical timeframe than the White Paper provides for.
Ellie Kisyombe, a former direct provision resident and activist, says that although the White Paper’s aims have been largely welcomed, there is a fear that it will fall short of its ambitious targets.
“There are people who are not convinced that this will materialise because of the overall housing crisis in the country. Many are asking themselves how things will be different this time when the housing crisis is a constant issue for government,” she says.
There are over 7,000 people at present living in direct provision centres across the country. For them, this report to end direct provision is merely what its name suggests; a new piece of paper, with little influence as of yet on their lived realities.
“We consider it progress in the fight to end direct provision, but it makes absolutely no difference to people who still wake up in a direct provision centre with the fear and anxiety that comes with being in the international protection system,” Roche says.
The full report is available to download from www.gov.ie/ and summaries, although not the document in full, are available in several languages including French, Arabic and Urdu.