Mr. Egide Dhala:

I thank Deputy Clarke for her question. This is my area of work on a daily basis. For the past 23 years, I have been living in Ireland, working closely with migrants and very much involved in civil society organisations. I worked with asylum seekers in direct provision centres. I worked with Spirasi and led its education and integration centre for many years. I also trained many communities who were supporting people coming here under the resettlement programme. After that I worked with civil society organisations to see where people were at.

The reality is that although people are assessed at the beginning and receive a degree of cultural orientation, living in a community remains a challenge. People can carrying on suffering from trauma. I have seen people who came here from a conflict zone who are still very much traumatised having lived here for 15 years. Many of them have become Ireland citizens and are very much embedded in the community but they are living on the margins in their local communities. I am involved in an organisation, Wezesha, and we did research with Congolese refugees who were resettled in Monaghan. We noticed many of them were still at that stage. I was involved in providing training to the local community who were welcoming the refugees in Monaghan. We noticed intervention was still needed. We started to involve the local community in trying to address racism and cross-cultural issues and promoting mentoring so that people could start living together and mutually accept other cultures. Trauma and mental health issues are not perceived in the same way here as in other cultures. It is important, therefore, that people in Ireland understand where people are coming from.

In the oversight group we are conscious that involving non-governmental organisations, NGOs, and civil society is important. One of the key recommendations of the oversight group is to work closely with NGOs. The oversight group is involved with a number of NGOs on the development of the action plan, notably AkiDwA, the network of migrant women in Ireland, which has been very much involved with the women, peace and security group. It is working with different communities through local initiatives to support people who are moving into the community. Another NGO is Wezesha.

In the IOM, we are very much conscious that, as a UN agency specialising in migration, we try to work across the board, not only with civil society organisations but also with State agencies. We are currently running a project called PROTECT. We are conscious that people who have come from conflict zones, especially women, and women who have been the victims of trafficking find it difficult to negotiate life in Ireland or in society. Accessing services is quite difficult for them. Even front-line service providers do not understand where they are coming form and what they have gone through. We have cultural mediators who provide training to front-line staff in State agencies. We also try to support victims of trafficking, gender-based violence and trauma who are accessing services. We engage with diaspora groups, civil society organisations and State agencies. We believe that by doing that, we will leverage the issue to a level where everybody will have a good understanding of the issues and newcomers will feel at home.