ICI News Bulletin - Issue 20

Thursday, 05 June 2008

1. Belfast 2008: protesting deportation - what next?

2. Immigration Information Network meeting with the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service 

3. IBC Update 

4. Launch of Towards Integration: A City Framework

5. European Immigration Lawyers' Network meeting 

 

Belfast 2008:  protesting deportations – what next?

ICI Legal Information Officer Ruth Ni Fhionnain attended a discussion last week in Belfast, organised by Belfast Exposed in collaboration with the Refugee Action Group.

The UK government has set out its agenda for strengthening its borders and boasts that someone is deported from the UK every eight minutes.   Belfast has recently witnessed and protested the unjust and inhuman reality of the deportation of asylum-seekers which devastate individual lives and communities alike.

Open to all, this discussion event brought together participants from refugee support and anti-deportation campaigns in Belfast, Dublin and the Unity Centre in Glasgow, which was at the forefront of the inspiring Glasgow protests.

For more information contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

 

Immigrant Information Network meeting with the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service

As part of the Immigrant Information Network, ICI Information and Support Service Coordinator Brian Killoran recently met with representatives of the various departments in the Irish Naturalization and Immigration Service (INIS) to raise specific concerns and issues voiced by our service users and to explore the possibility of developing a customer liaison forum between NGOs working in the area and INIS.

The meeting provided a positive and necessary forum for the ICI and other members of the IIN to raise concerns with INIS such as: lack of acknowledgement of applications, extremely long processing times for applications and difficulty in accessing clear information on recent policy changes of the Department.

In particular, the ICI raised issues relating to residency applications for victims of domestic violence who are forced to leave their homes, and the uncertainty surrounding the policy and processing time on these applications.

The IIN intends to follow up on all of the issues raised with INIS and seek further clarification on policies and procedures.

For further information contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

 

IBC Update

On May 15, members of the CADIC Coalition met with representatives of the IBC Unit at Burgh Quay. Information received at the meeting included the following:

Renewal Process

Of the 16,890 parents of Irish children who were granted residency under the IBC/05 Scheme, 14,200 parents have applied to have their residency renewed. Of these, 14,036 have been granted to date, 9 applications have been refused, 10 have been withdrawn while 145 are yet to be processed.

Section 3 Process

The IBC Unit has begun to issue “Section 3” letters to 950 parents of Irish children who were refused residency under the IBC/05 Scheme or who made “ad-hoc” applications and have been refused residency. The following categories of parents of Irish children will not be issued with Section 3 letters:

• parents who have some other legal status (eg Stamp 3),
• parents who remain in the refugee process (ORAC, RAT, SP),
• parents who were refused under the IBC/05 Scheme for criminal reasons,
• parents have pending deportation orders,
• Romanian or Bulgarian nationals, as well as
• parents who have pending Judicial Review proceedings.

The IBC Unit was concerned that only half the letters issued have been replied to within the required 15 working days.

Dimbo & Oguekwe Judgments – implications

Officials said that the IBC Unit/Repatriation Unit had not been given legal opinion on the implications of these judgments but appreciate clarity given by 15-point list. The IBC Unit has not decided how it is going to deal with parents of Irish children who have pending deportation orders. ICI information note on the judgments attached herewith.

For more information or for a copy of the statistics given at this meeting, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

 

Launch of Towards Integration: A City Framework

The ICI welcomes the launch of Towards Integration: A City Framework by Dublin City Council and the Dublin City Development Board on May 29, 2008.

Prior to the launch a number of stakeholders in the City Development Board publicly signed a Declaration of Intent, committing their organisations to the implementation of the Framework.

ICI Research and Integration Officer Fidele Mutwarasibo served as a member of the Steering Committee and the ICI hosted a focus group as part of the consultation process that led to the development of the Framework.

For further information contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

 

European Immigration Lawyers’ Network meeting

ICI Senior Solicitor Hilkka Becker attended the annual meeting of the European Immigration Lawyers’ Network in Brussels on May 23 and 24.

The European Immigration Lawyers Network (EILN http://www.eiln.com) was established in 2000 to meet the changing needs of business and economic migrants, their employers and families in an enlarging European Union. Its objectives are:

• to provide a seamless service of advice and action for immigration clients across the European Union
• to keep members of the Network up to date on all the changes of law at the European level relevant to an immigration practice
• to exchange information about national law and practice in the field in order to capitalise on the best options for clients.

 The meeting was attended by a representative from the European Commission who is dealing with complaints against the failure of EU Member States to implement EU legislation correctly or at all.

Further discussions focussed on new EU proposals on the introduction of an ‘EU Blue Card’ and the proposal to introduce EU wide sanctions against employers who employ ‘illegally staying third country nationals’.

Additionally, delegates received an update on recent judgments of the European Court of Justice as well as of the European Court of Human Rights.

For further information contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it