A fast-track system for some asylum seekers means they have to live away from their families while the applications are being processed, writes Ali Bracken.

Beaming with pride, David takes a photo of his Irish-born infant son from his wallet. "I didn't know my wife was in Ireland," explains the middle-aged Nigerian national. Months after fleeing her homeland, his wife Samantha sent word that she had given birth to their child in Ireland. Soon after receiving the news, David purchased fake travel documents and flew to London, before making his way immediately to Ireland last February to seek asylum.

Samantha fled Nigeria because, her husband says, their first-born child, a daughter, bled to death after she was subjected to genital mutilation against the parents' wishes. The practice known as female circumcision (common in Nigeria, although it is outlawed) involves the removal by cutting of the clitoris and other organs, and is performed to lessen female promiscuity.

David is housed in a hostel for asylum seekers in Dublin. Samantha and his child live at an accommodation centre for asylum seekers in Athlone. Having travelled from Nigeria to find his family, David is now forced to live apart from his wife and child.

"At the first interview when I arrived, they told me I would be reunited with my family," explains David in his soft- spoken manner. "But this never happened."

David's is not the only family divided. According to Rosanna Flynn of the campaigning group Residents Against Racism, approximately 170 men from two Dublin asylum hostels - Georgian Court on Lower Gardiner Street and Hatch Hall on Lower Hatch Street - are separated from their spouses and, in most cases, children.

All of the men entered Ireland after the rules changed here for people seeking asylum from five countries. Since January 25th, 2005, Nigeria, Croatia, South Africa, Bulgaria and Romania are regarded as "safe countries". Asylum seekers arriving from these countries are having their applications fast-tracked - their applications are given highest priority and many are now processed within weeks. It is unlikely that asylum seekers from these five countries will be granted refugee status.

In the first quarter of this year, 1,259 new asylum applications were lodged. Five hundred and fifty-seven of these applicants were Nigerian, making it the number one country of origin for asylum seekers entering the Republic in the first three months of 2005.

The Irish Refugee Council believes that these fast-track measures - which means nationals of some countries will now not have the right to an oral appeal of their asylum hearing - may further diminish their chances of getting a fair asylum hearing.

Asylum seekers subject to fast-tracking are housed in Dublin and have to sign-in at their hostels at 5pm daily, except on Sundays. The penalty for missing the 5pm sign-in is a €3,000 fine or 12 months' imprisonment, or both. "Where", asks Rosanna Flynn, "will an asylum seeker get €3,000?"

In 2003, Joanne came to Ireland from Nigeria pregnant and seeking asylum.Joanne's husband, Tom, came to Ireland last February and, like David, he is housed in a Dublin hostel, while Joanne lives with their two children in asylum accommodation in the south. On Tom's arrival, Joanne travelled to Dublin to visit him and became pregnant. Joanne is finding it very difficult being separated from Tom, particularly since she became pregnant.

Joanne has written a "compassionate letter" to the Irish Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) asking that Tom be allowed to live with his family, since her pregnancy has made her unwell, as well as in need of his emotional support and help minding their two other children.

Joanne's doctor has also written two letters to the RIA requesting that Tom be permitted on emotional grounds to live with his family. A fourth letter making the same request followed from an asylum seeker support group in the south, but the RIA has made no response to any correspondence and Joanne says contact was first made in the early stages of her pregnancy.

Joanne fears Tom will be deported and this has affected her health and led to concerns over the well-being of her unborn child.

As with all asylum seekers on "direct provision," David and Samantha receive bed and board, three daily meals and a payment of €19.10 per week. Asylum seekers are not permitted to work or take up full-time education. While David has to sign-in at his hostel six days a week, the same rule does not apply to Samantha, since she arrived in Ireland prior to January 25th. "It's not that my wife can't come and see me," explains David. "It's that she can't afford to on €19 a week and with a new baby."

David says he is able to afford the trip to Athlone this week, but not the next. "It usually costs me €16 to get to Athlone and from there I have to catch a bus." The €19 David receives weekly is only ever spent on two things: bus fare to Athlone and mobile phone credit to keep in touch with Samantha.

All of the men in David's situation followed their wives to Ireland, most of whom have at least one child here. While David's asylum application for refugee status has been rejected, as the father of an Irish-born child he has applied for Irish residency under a once-off scheme introduced by the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, in January. Despite the outcome of the 2004 Citizenship referendum that decided parents of Irish-born children do not have a legal right to residency, this scheme gives up to 30,000 people the opportunity to apply to stay in Ireland if their child was born prior to January within the past two years.

Tom is also eligible to apply for status to remain in Ireland under this scheme. Because of this amnesty, says Patrick Guerin of the Irish Refugee Council, the Department of Justice may be sceptical of the genuineness of the men's asylum claims. But nonetheless, he adds, this separation is inhumane.

"I wrote a letter pleading with them to please let me be reunited with my family," says David. "We all wrote letter upon letter."

When David makes the trip to Athlone, he is not allowed to stay overnight in Samantha's mobile home, and when she comes to Dublin, she is not permitted to stay at his hostel on Gardiner Street, he says. Sometimes David travels down and back on the same day, but the men whose wives live further often have to sleep at bus stations.

Because of Joanne's pregnancy, Tom has twice been granted special permission to visit her overnight. But on both occasions, explains Joanne, Tom was not allowed to stay in her hostel. "Both times he rented a B&B. He is not allowed to work but he still had to pay for the B&B himself even though he gets only €19 every week."

Rosanna Flynn believes there is a strong legal case against the forced separation of families but unfortunately, she continues, the free legal aid through the Refugee Legal Service would not cover such a court challenge.

Despite David's experiences, he says he likes the family-orientated culture that exists here, but despairs of the living conditions of his wife and child in Athlone. He is also worried about the psychological effect this situation is having on the son he has seen so little of during the first months of his life.

David maintains that Nigeria is an extremely dangerous and corrupt country.But when the Irish authorities visit Nigeria, he says they do not see this side of things. "I've seen situations where families sell their daughters to human traffickers because of poverty," says David.

Samantha is afraid what would happen to her if she returns home, he says. Or worse, what would happen if she gave birth to another baby girl in Nigeria.

Joanne fled Nigeria after she refused to be initiated into her village following her marriage. The initiation would have involved inflicting scars on her body and she was forced to leave Nigeria when her unborn child was threatened, she says. Tom followed her to Ireland as soon as he could raise the money.

Asked how he keeps himself busy, David sayshe volunteers at his local church. Otherwise, he can be found reading at the Ilac Centre library in Dublin, a popular spot for many asylum seekers. Looking to the future, David wants the opportunity to provide for his family using his skills and university education. This year, Ireland and Denmark were the only European countries to opt out of the EU Reception Directive, which allows some asylum seekers access to work.

Sarah Toner of Integrating Ireland - a national network of refugee, asylum seeker and immigrant support groups - maintains that not only does "direct provision" segregate asylum seekers from Irish society, now the RIA is enforcing the separation of families.

The psychological effect this could have on the children of separated asylum seekers, not to mention the couples, is yet unknown. The direct provision system in place in Ireland, says Toner, "has come under criticism from the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination".

"I don't want my child growing up thinking his Dad is a deadbeat," says David, who desperately wants to work.

Joanne just wants to lead a life free from persecution, with her family all under one roof. She has found the first two years of her life in Ireland an uphill struggle. "Sometimes I feel like killing myself," she says, her voice breaking. "Only for my children, I don't think I could cope."

The Department of Justice declined to comment on the issue to The Irish Times.

* Names have been changed.