Mr. Brian Killoran:

I thank Deputy Bacik and the committee. In terms of political engagement, one of the parts of our integration work down through the years has been around the political enfranchisement of migrant communities. Some of that is essentially boots on the ground, voter education and voter mobilisation when it comes to informing people about their right to vote. It is worth reflecting on the fact that we have a good system around accessing a right to vote in Ireland, particularly at local election level. It is a good system and an outlier in Europe. Even somebody who is an asylum seeker can vote in a local election. It is really important that we do that but not many prospective voters know they can vote. Voter mobilisation is part of it and that is something on which we have focused.

We have also worked a lot with political parties through the years on, for example, migrant councillor internships. Crosscare did that originally as well and we took up the idea of councillor internships a couple of years ago. Originally, that included internships with Members of the Dáil. People who are interested in becoming politically active can shadow a councillor, in the most recent iteration of the scheme, and learn about local politics, whether they are with a political party or an Independent. Those interns can shadow a local councillor over a number of months and learn all about the system. In many cases, those interns have ended up joining the relevant party themselves and some of them have run in local elections. Some have ended up being elected themselves at the end of the day.

Integration is obviously a two-way process. Part of it is opening political parties and representatives to meeting politically interested migrants half way. Schemes such as the one we run with migrant councillor internships are a good way of doing that. That scheme has been replicated in a couple of county councils across the country and run by the councils themselves, which is great. It has taken wings in and of itself.

We are conscious to work directly with, and be a resource for, political parties with regard to their thinking about the issue. Some of that is about the party structure, some of it is about asking what a political party is doing to welcome people and what more they can do. It is about identifying barriers to anyone advancing within the ranks of a political party. Some of the thinking about those issues can be done with groups such as ourselves and Crosscare. There are also a great number of migrant-led groups that are increasingly, and rightly, moving to the front and centre of the conversation around migration and integration in Ireland. We are here to help and support that process. Direct engagement with migrant-led groups is important. The Deputy mentioned AkiDwA as a good example. We are absolutely willing to do anything we can to help make contacts and build bridges and all that kind of stuff. That is massively important.

On the gender question, we have done work around gender-based violence, victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation and domestic violence work impacting upon migrant women. A gendered approach to our immigration system is a must. To date, it has been largely a one-size-fits-all approach. That can be seen, for example, in the placing of victims of human trafficking within the direct provision system in mixed gender accommodation, places that are inappropriate and unsafe for them, as victims of trafficking. The Government policy is that those women go into direct provision. That has been criticised not just by ourselves but by international bodies, down through the years. Much of our work has drawn attention to the fact that we need a gendered approach to support the victims of trafficking and the immigration system in general and the type of social supports that are built around it. In certain instances, that need is of particular prominence, such as with regard to domestic and gender-based violence. We need to do a lot of work to reach migrant women. We must interact directly with them to get their expertise and experience. We must work with civil society to try to harness that expertise and experience and have it inform policy and work, going forward.

I will briefly touch on the Deputy's last point about unaccompanied minor children. I mentioned at the start that we do work in that area, as do the likes of the Irish Refugee Council and others. We have a great level of interaction with Tusla around the immediate legal needs of the person and the care he or she gets through Tusla. We do a follow-on project around the unmet legal need of unaccompanied minor children. That can touch on everything other than their immediate legal status. It can include family reunification, citizenship applications, renewal of status and all the things that flow, especially when someone ages out and reaches the age of 18. At the moment, that is a civil society-led initiative involving ourselves and the Irish Refugee Council, supported by pro bonopartners in law firms. It is an area in need of considerable development, especially in instances where people have come to the State as minors, do not have their families with them and need to be joined by their families. We must recognise that the overall integration of such people and their position within a community and in Ireland overall is better served by their having a family structure around them and being integrated as quickly as possible. I do not denigrate the work of Tusla in that regard and we have a very good relationship with it. However, there is a lot of unmet legal needs for unaccompanied minor children that we think needs considerable investment.