Mr. Christopher Sibanda:

Yes, please. I promise I will not take long. I will touch specifically on many issues that have been mentioned, particularly single mothers and children in direct provision. After the Ombudsman for Children stated that such environments were not fit for human habitation, let alone raising children, I do not understand how mothers with children are still in direct provision. I do not believe that the Department of Justice and Equality or the IPO considers asylum seeker mothers and children as human beings.

Men are giving children creepy looks in small passages that actually serve as the children's playgrounds. Naked men walk down those passages to the bathrooms. Let there be sense. Let this become a normal human situation. I am a father. My youngest is 21 years old. I have to walk in that passage with my towel tied around my waist to go to the bathroom. There are children, from three years old to 16 years old, boys and girls, playing there because there are no playgrounds. The system is just not fit for any purpose. When we say that direct provision should be abolished, we do so because it is not an environment for human beings. I could invite committee members to spend a night with me in direct provision in Viking House where I sleep with three other people in the same room. I have measured it - it is 4 m by 4 m. There are four of us in the room. Within that area, we have our wardrobes and a bathroom. We are all men.

There is no area in the centre where, if members came to visit me, they could sit to talk to or greet me. That is not human living. The jailer-prisoner attitude that prevails is not for human beings either. When I go to sleep in Viking House tonight, I will tell people that I am going home, but is it really home? When I get there, anyone who wants to see me has to sign in. If that person is lucky, someone will call me so that we can go outside. There is no reception or anywhere people can just sit down and talk. I do not know what training RIA has put in place for the people who work in the centres, but they feel that they are jailers and we are prisoners and that they are doing favours for us. Kitchen staff throw people plates of food. Sometimes those plates fall and people laugh. This is happening to adults, who are in a queue. They will then beg for food. If someone happens to miss a meal, he or she knows that it will stay missed even though the food will not have been served. Obviously, if I miss my meal, there will be leftovers, but they cannot be served to me because I have returned outside the meal time. That is not human living. I have to wake up at 8 a.m. to ensure that I have breakfast before 9 a.m. because if I get there at 9.02 a.m., the door will be closed. I call this place "home", and I have been there for the past three years, but I still cannot get that meal.

I attend school in Dublin. I understand the problem with accommodation here. I live in Waterford and travel to UCD and back. That is six hours on the road every day. I am a full-time student. I cannot get a packed lunch from the centre. I must use the €38 that I get to pay for the travel and food that I need to go to school. That is well and good with the RIA and the IPO, but it is not natural. A country of Ireland's status should not be doing this to people.

I do not believe it should be done.

We have spoken about improvements. I disagree completely with the suggestion made by Mr. Justice McMahon a week ago that this is improving. I wonder how he considers it to be improving when people are running direct provision for profit and to become even more rich. Can that still be called an improvement? The centres that have moved slightly by providing cooking facilities have also set up shops that are still owned by these people. Why does this segregation exist? When it was decided to stop requiring residents to queue for food, why was it decided to require them to buy their food in a shop owned by these people if they want to cook in the kitchen? There is a Centra shop at the gate. I could buy what I want there if it were not for the voucher system. We are told to report what we want to buy so that the authorities can order what they need. We have to tell them in advance what we want to buy the following week when we bring in our vouchers. That is not on. That is not life.

I would like to speak about education and work permits. I suggest that giving people the right to work has actually put them in the negative, rather than giving them better opportunities. If one wants to get schooling or training or do anything, one is required to have a work permit. The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, which is responsible for this area, will not approve any training if one does not have a work permit. Unfortunately, the people who do not have work permits are in the majority. They tend to be the people who have been in the system for the longest periods of time. This means they are being deprived of the opportunity to study. I am studying at third level. When one is in direct provision, one is not supposed to be studying above level 4. Monaghan Institute will not take one for training into any course above level 4, even if one is prepared to pay international fees. I do not see that as an improvement - I see it as getting worse.

I will conclude by speaking about the amount of time that people who have received refugee status have to wait. Two gentlemen in direct provision in Tramore who have been given refugee status have been waiting eight months for the Minister to send them a letter on moving out of direct provision, which will enable them to go to the GNIB to get a GNIB card. They have been told that their refugee applications have been approved, but they have had to wait eight months for this letter. It is really not on.