ICI News Bulletin - Issue 58
1. Christmas good news stories
2. Survey on citizenship process and public opinion forums
3. International Migrants’ Day breakfast meeting with ambassadors
4. Guide to running mentoring programmes published
5. Residency renewal process for parents of Irish citizen children released
6. Budget reaction
7. Racism in Ireland highlighted in EU survey
8. Sisters of Charity commit funding to anti-trafficking work
9. ICI input on Garda anti-trafficking training
10. Dignity Project enters contract with FáS for integration work with victims of sex trafficking
11. Diversity training project gets underway
12. Migrant women meet in Helsinki
13. Conference examines migrant workers’ experiences in domestic and care sectors
14. Immigrant Information Network meets with INIS
15. Staff news
Christmas good news stories
As the year draws to a close, we’d like to share two good news stories that we were involved in during the year.
A 17-year-old girl in urgent need of a kidney transplant contacted the ICI seeking assistance with getting permission for her brother, a potential donor, to visit Ireland. The girl was on the waiting list in Ireland but her situation was extremely urgent and she and her mother were distraught. An initial application for a visa for the girl’s brother had been refused.
The ICI worked closely with members of the INIS Visa section, who proved extremely helpful and granted the brother a visa on appeal. An extension to his permission to remain here was required, and granted, to allow all of the necessary tests to take place. The girl contacted the ICI recently to let us know her transplant has taken place and was successful. She is now attending college and has a new lease on life.
Another client will have a happier Christmas this year after finally reuniting in Ireland with her husband after five years apart. The woman had unsuccessfully applied for visas for her husband to join her and their two daughters in Ireland. The ICI lodged an appeal on a number of grounds against a visa refusal earlier this year. The husband has now been issued with a visa and has been permitted to register on Stamp 4 conditions.
Survey on citizenship process and public opinion forums
Senior Solicitor Catherine Cosgrave and Legal Information Officer Máire Ní Shuilleabháin this week delivered an information outreach session on long-term residence and citizenship applications, organised by Longford Women’s Link. More than 30 people from Longford, Athlone and Mullingar attended. The meeting provided an opportunity for attendees to discuss their situation and express their views on the citizenship application process.
The ICI will be hosting more regional citizenship information outreach and public opinion forums in the New Year. Dates and venues will be circulated soon. We would be delighted to hear from organisations interested in co-hosting a session.
In the meantime, the ICI has prepared a short questionnaire on the citizenship and long-term residence applications process. People who wish to confidentially share their views can obtain a copy from Catherine – catherine@immigrantcouncil.ie. Alternatively, people can express a view on our Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Immigrant-Council-of-Ireland/121138729710?ref=ts
International Migrants’ Day breakfast meeting with ambassadors
The ICI will meet with Ambassadors of Brazil, Bulgaria and Nigeria and representatives of the Chinese, Indian, Romanian, South African and Ukrainian embassies tomorrow, International Migrants Day, to discuss issues presenting to the ICI’s Information and Referral Service.
The ICI will tomorrow release statistics showing the number of enquiries we have received this year and the types of issues being raised with us by migrants.
Guide to running mentoring programmes published
The Immigrant Council will tomorrow launch a guide to running a mentoring programme. The decision was made to produce the booklet after a great deal of interest was shown in our pilot Mentoring Programme.
Many mentors and mentees who took part in the pilot programme expressed the view that it should be rolled out nationally, while a number of other organisations expressed an interest in facilitating a mentoring programme.
The ICI Mentoring Programme brought together Irish citizens, or well-established residents, with newly arrived migrants to spend time with and learn from each other as individuals. The booklet will be available on our website tomorrow and hard copies or CDs will be available from the ICI. The project was co-funded by the European Commission and supported by the Office of the Minister for Integration and Pobal.
Residency renewal process for parents of Irish citizen children released
Details of the process for renewing residency permissions granted under the Irish Born Child ’05 Scheme (IBC/05) have been released this week.
The renewal process will be carried out at the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service, Burgh Quay, Dublin 2, or the applicants’ nearest Immigration Office outside Dublin. Applicants should go to have their permission renewed no earlier than 14 days before their current permission expires and should attend with their Irish child and bring their original passport or national identity card, original GNIB card and evidence of residence in Ireland. The renewal will be for three years, save for exceptional circumstances, and will cost €150.
Almost 17,000 parents of Irish children were granted residency in Ireland under the IBC/05 Scheme. Initially, residency was granted for two years, then renewed in 2007 for three more years. Details of the 2010 renewal process will be advertised in national newspapers and published on the INIS website (www.inis.gov.ie).
Budget reaction
The ICI has welcomed the extra 6 per cent in funding announced in last week’s Budget for the Office of the Minister for Integration, given concern about increasing racism and xenophobia during the recession. The McCarthy report had recommended the office’s abolition and we are delighted the Government has recognised the importance of remaining committed to integration.
However, the 24 per cent cut in funding for the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service is a cause for concern and may lead to a blow out in the already unacceptably high costs and long waiting times involved in administering our immigration system.
For example, compared to other countries, Ireland already charges extremely high fees and takes more than two years to process citizenship applications, an embarrassingly long time which causes enormous hardship for migrants. The ICI believes security of immigration status plays a crucial role in migrants’ integration experiences.
Racism in Ireland highlighted in EU survey
The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) last week released the results of its first ever EU-wide survey of discrimination against minorities. It found that rates of discrimination against Sub-Saharan Africans in Ireland were amongst the top 10 highest levels of discrimination against minorities in EU Member States.
The discrimination was reported has having occurred in a variety of settings, including in the workplace or while applying for work, from landlords or housing agencies and one in four Sub-Saharan Africans in Ireland reported that they had been discriminated against in a shop.
The survey was carried out between August and October last year and involved interviews with 609 Central and Eastern Europeans and 503 Sub-Saharan Africans. The FRA’s national focal point in Ireland for its RAXEN (Racism, Xenophobia, Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism) is a consortia involving the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and the UCD School of Social Justice, the ICI being sub-contracted to perform the communications function.
Sisters of Charity commit funding to anti-trafficking work
The ICI would like to acknowledge the continued support of the Sisters of Charity for our work against sex trafficking and the exploitation of women and girls in Ireland’s sex industry.
The Sisters of Charity have approved an additional grant for this work for 2010, which will greatly assist us in delivering legal services and working in collaboration with other agencies to develop protection measures and provision of quality services, as well as work in developing responses to tackling demand.
The ICI is extremely appreciative of the funding to continue this important work at a crucial time in its development.
ICI input on Garda anti-trafficking training
Anti-Trafficking Coordinator Nusha Yonkova gave a presentation on sex trafficking in Ireland to more than 65 gardaí at Templemore, County Tipperary, on Tuesday. Nusha spoke about the ICI’s practical experience in providing legal services and support to victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation.
The two-day training session, entitled, “Tackling Trafficking in Human Beings: Prevention, Protection and Prosecution” was organised by the International Organisation for Migration. This was the second training session for gardaí that the ICI has made a presentation to on sex trafficking. For more information, please contact Nusha – nusha@immigrantcouncil.ie
Dignity Project enters contract with FáS for integration work with victims of sex trafficking
The Dignity Project Ireland has entered into a contract with FáS that will result in the provision of essential integration services for victims of sex trafficking in Ireland. As a result of an ICI initiative to explore training and educational opportunities for victims of trafficking within the FáS Social Inclusion Fund, a programme begins in January to provide pre-training for women and girls exploited in the sex industry to prepare them to enter mainstream FáS training, education and pre-employment courses.
The pilot programme, once launched, will be available to victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation and people vulnerable to sexual exploitation.
The Dignity Project is a joint initiative of the Immigrant Council of Ireland and Dublin Employment Pact, funded by the EU. Partners in the project are An Garda Síochána, the Anti Human Trafficking Unit, the Women’s Health Project (HSE) and Sonas Housing and, more recently, Ruhama and the Legal Aid Board.
Diversity training project gets underway
Information and Referral Service Coordinator Brian Killoran attended the first meeting of the partners in the “Diversity Training for Small and Medium Enterprises” project, which was held in Belfast recently.
The project, funded under the EU’s Leonardo Da Vinci grant scheme, involves partners from the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Denmark, Greece, Romania and Malta. The ICI is the representative partner for the Republic of Ireland and will hold the next meeting in Dublin in March.
The project aims to identify best practices in diversity training for small and medium enterprises in European countries and to produce a toolkit for employers.
Migrant women meet in Helsinki
Senior Solicitor Catherine Cosgrave attended a two-day meeting of representatives from the European Women’s Lobby sub-committee on migrant women and representatives from the European Network of Migrant Women in Helsinki recently. ICI chief executive Denise Charlton is the chair of the EWL sub-committee.
Catherine gave a presentation on the administrative immigration procedures in Ireland, recent research on migrant women’s experiences in this country and the development of the ICI’s Specialist Advocacy Service for migrant women experiencing domestic violence or who are victims of trafficking.
The meeting was hosted by MONIKA, the Multicultural Women’s Association in Finland, which is an umbrella organisation of 16 women’s NGOs offering services to migrant women and children experiencing domestic violence. For more information, please contact Catherine – catherine@immigrantcouncil.ie
Conference examines migrant workers’ experiences in domestic and care sectors
Senior Solicitor Hilkka Becker was a panellist at a University College Cork Public Panel discussion entitled, “Migration and Networks of Care: Migrant domestic and care workers in European contexts” on Monday. She spoke on “Legal Challenges for Domestic Workers in Ireland and the EU”. Other panellists included Aoife Smith from the Domestic Workers Action Group at the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland (MRCI) and Professor Fiona Williams of the Centre for International Research on Care, Labour and Equalities (CIRCLE) at the University of Leeds (UK).
The panel discussion covered legal, welfare, gender and equality issues associated with migrants working in the relatively unregulated domestic and care work sectors in Ireland and the European Union.
The discussion was preceded by a European Collaborative Research (Eurocores)/European Science Foundation workshop on a comparative European research project on migration and networks of care in Europe, which featured presentations from speakers from Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and Ireland on findings from four related studies of migration and networks of care in Europe.
Immigrant Information Network meets with INIS
Information and Referral Service Coordinator Brian Killoran and other members of the Immigrant Information Network met with representatives from the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service last week to discuss issues raised with service providers by migrants.
The meeting focused on issues affecting international students in Ireland, residency under EU Treaty Rights, questions about the situation faced by people without identity documents and difficulties faced by some applicants for family reunification.
The meetings have provided a positive opportunity for information sharing by all involved and have clarified very important policy and procedural issues within the immigration system. The ICI looks forward to continuing the relationship in 2010.
Staff news
ICI Apprentice Solicitor Ruth Ní Fhionnáin and fellow trainee solicitor áine Bhreathnach were finalists in this year’s Bréagchúirt Uí Dhálaigh Irish language moot court competition in the High Court last month.
The competition was presided over by High Court judge Roderick Murphy, with barristers Daithí Mac Cárthaigh and Séamus ó Tuathail SC. The winners were the Kings Inns team of Niall ó hUiginn and Stiofán ó hAinfidh.
The ICI wishes all our News Bulletin Readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Our next edition will be in late January.
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