Ms Anne Mulhall:

I will briefly introduce the work of Anti-Deportation Ireland, as well as flagging a few key issues for ADI. I will then hand over to Ms Mokoba and Mr. Musekiwa. As the Chairman pointed out earlier, they are the experts on these matters. The people who have lived in the system are the ones who know just how inhuman it is.

Anti-Deportation Ireland is a grassroots organisation, which is asylum seeker and migrant-led. It also has allies and supporters involved. ADI represents the position and views of the asylum seekers themselves in the system.

ADI believes that the whole direct provision system is the way it is because of the deportation regime. From that point of view, direct provision - as Mr. Stephen Ng'ang'a was saying earlier - is often described as an open prison. As he pointed out, it is about surveillance but it is also about people being left in a state of deportability. It functions in this country as a kind of holding pen for people while they have the threat of deportation hanging over them. That is effectively what direct provision is. Anti-Deportation Ireland is calling for an end to deportation and direct provision - not reform of the system. It is also calling for the right to work for all asylum seekers in Ireland.

ADI does not fulfil a mediating role but is directly asylum seeker-led. ADI's recommendation quite simply is that direct provision has to end. Agencies such as RIA that oversee the direct provision system are far too dysfunctional in some ways to do anything about them, and Ms Mokoba and Mr. Musekiwa will be able to speak eloquently on that point.

Ms Conlon and Mr. Ng'ang'a mentioned the protests that have been going on in the country. In addition to people protesting about local conditions, they have also been protesting against direct provision. The protests that have taken place in Portlaoise, Cork, Waterford and Athlone called for an end to direct provision. In the meantime, people need to be able to live as other human beings do. For instance, in Kinsale Road, the protesters achieved more after ten days of protests than has been achieved by any Government or other agency that represents, advocates or oversees the asylum system and asylum seekers in this country in 14 years. Through direct negotiation with the owners, they won an awful lot of concessions in terms of their local conditions.

Ultimately, ADI's position is to seek an end to direct provision and an end to deportation. I will now hand over to Ms Mokoba and Mr. Musekiwa.