IMMIGRATION AUTHORITIES have ordered a review into the cases of asylum seekers who are waiting five years or more to receive a final decision on their application to continue living in the State.
The review could benefit about 100 people who have been living in direct provision accommodation centres since 2005. It may be extended to a couple of hundred other asylum seekers, who choose to live outside the centres.
Officials at the Department of Justice have told non-governmental organisations (NGOs) the review is not an amnesty, although it is being undertaken with a view to granting leave to remain to people living here longer than five years.
The Irish Refugee Council (IRC) welcomed the review by the authorities yesterday, describing it as a “pragmatic approach to meeting the problem of people getting stuck in the asylum system”.
“This benefits individuals, who are waiting many years for a decision, and the State, by cutting the cost of direct provision,” said Sue Conlan, IRC chief executive.
A Department of Justice spokeswoman downplayed the significance of the review yesterday, saying such reviews were carried out on a regular basis and there were no figures available on the number of cases to be reviewed.
The review, which will begin this month, has been ordered following publication of a value-for-money and policy report on the direct provision system for accommodating asylum seekers. This found the State was paying too much to house and feed asylum seekers and recommended reforming the system to cut costs.
Direct provision does not allow asylum seekers to work while waiting for their claims to be determined.
Instead it accommodates people in direct provision hostels where they get a bed, meals and €19.10 a week to live on. The State will spend about €80 million this year housing 6,000 asylum seekers at 50 centres nationwide.
The review follows criticism of the system for determining asylum cases by NGOs, which point to long delays in having claims decided.
The IRC has warned the State could face damages claims from asylum seekers left in limbo for years without the right to work or take up studies.
The Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service currently faces a backlog of 11,700 “leave to remain” cases – submitted by people who have not been granted refugee status or subsidiary protection but are appealing on humanitarian grounds to stay. It will take six years to clear the backlog at current decision rates.
NGOs, which have been briefed on the review, say the authorities will be contacting individual asylum seekers who have been here five or more years in the next few weeks. People who have outstanding claims for subsidiary protection will be asked whether they want to withdraw this claim to be considered in the current review.
A key issue in granting leave to remain to asylum seekers under the current review will be whether they have no criminal record.
It is estimated about 100 people living in direct provision accommodation centres have been here for five years and could qualify for the review. A couple of hundred more asylum seekers may be living outside the centres and may also have their cases reviewed by officials.
Rosanna Flynn, spokeswoman for the NGO Residents Against Racism, said she hoped the review would help those waiting a long time for decisions.
But she urged caution until the authorities released full details of the review.
“We won’t celebrate until we know more and we hope asylum seekers outside the direct provision system, who have not cost the State money, will also have their cases reviewed,” she said.
CASE STUDIES: A LIFE SPENT WAITING
Dawi Roushaanis one of the 100 or so asylum seekers who could benefit from a decision to review the cases of people still awaiting final decisions on their status after five years or more.
Mr Roushaan fled the war in Afghanistan in 2004 and made it to the Republic that September. He has lived in direct provision hostels in Dublin, Clare, Dundalk and now Mosney.
"We have to accept this as good news as it marks a change in their attitude to asylum seekers," he said, "but there are lots more people waiting four years too . . . I hope they will look at these cases too.
"It is very difficult to live in the hostels because we can't study or work. This may be an opportunity to leave Mosney at last," he said.
Mr Roushaan applied for refugee status in 2004, saying he had been forced to join the Taliban and had to leave his country for his own safety. His application was denied. He appealed unsuccessfully to the Refugee Appeals Tribunal and the High Court. He is awaiting a final decision from the authorities on a subsequent application for subsidiary protection.
"In some hostels I had to share a room with four people and the food and the environment were very bad. It made people crazy," says Mr Roushaan, who is desperate to get out of direct provision, begin studying and get a job. Now aged 31, he has been unable to work or attend college over the past six years.
Bahroz Wakashi, a Kurd from Iran, arrived in Ireland as an asylum seeker in 2005. He has lived in five direct provision centres and is awaiting a final decision on his claim for protection.
"I was sent to Dublin, then Cork, then New Ross, then Kilkenny and finally Mosney. I've been all over the place," he says.
He says hostel residents live in fear that if they complain, management will complain to the authorities about them and get them transferred.
"Living in direct provision is like someone else controlling everything about your life. Even the food you eat is made by someone else. You are not allowed to go to college and, when you think about it, even prisoners have the right to study. We don't feel like human beings."
He hopes the review will free him from living in direct provision and allow him to get on with his life. "I would feel I can do whatever I want with my life at last. I could get a job and begin contributing to the country," he says.