Mr. Brian Killoran:

I thank the committee for the opportunity to speak to it this afternoon. As a front-lline, non-governmental organisation and independent law centre offering services to migrant communities in Ireland for 20 years, the Immigrant Council of Ireland is very well placed to reflect upon the theme of today's hearing and offer our analysis of some of the issues that present to our services.

In 2020 and 2021, we have consistently provided legal representation to over 200 legal cases through our independent law centre function and responded to over 5,000 headline queries to our national telephone helpline. In terms of our legal representation, the cases that we represent range across the whole area of the immigration system. We have attained particular capacity for extreme vulnerability within that system, primarily around gender-based violence issues, such as supports to victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation and victims of domestic violence, as well as issues of unaccompanied minors who are in the State and have legal needs.

The lens of the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated impact it has had on both the lives of migrant communities in Ireland and the services with which they interact cannot be overstated and in many ways have magnified and intensified some of the long-standing issues in how we as a State support migrants here. While I am speaking mainly on the experiences of migrants and interacting with the immigration system, our experience touches on many areas of relevance to the topic being looked at today.

As Sr. Breege Keenan's opening remarks touched on, immigration status, rights and entitlements constitute a theme that cuts across much integration experiences and rights and entitlements that flow for a person from that immigration status. In 2020 and 2021, the administration of our immigration system in Ireland has strained under the pressure of its bureaucratic nature. In some instances it has ground to a halt, not only for those seeking to come to Ireland but for those for whom Ireland is home.

A prominent issue regards the registration of non-EEA nationals who are legally residing in Ireland on various immigration permissions. With the closure of the Burgh Quay registration office in Dublin under public health restrictions and the associated closure of registration offices across the country, those who needed to renew their immigration permission were unable to do so. That situation has resolved somewhat but the impact remains in terms of people's inability to get appointments for registration, as well as the online registration system being difficult to navigate and, unfortunately, still plagued by bots and extreme delays for people renewing and registering initial permissions to remain in the State.

The Department of Justice correctly issued statements confirming blanket renewals of all immigration permissions for those impacted, but the inability to have an in-date registration card caused and continues to cause huge problems. Our services have seen people who have lost their job as their card was expired and their employer did not understand the situation and did not want to do anything wrong by employing someone who could not present a valid, in-date immigration permission. We have seen people interview for roles they were successful in getting but could not take up as they could not convince an employer of the nature of their legal residency without a registration card. We have repeatedly seen people go to social welfare offices and be asked to produce a valid, in-date certificate of registration, their Garda registration card, which it was impossible for them to do through no fault of their own. Registration issues have been problematic and the overall processing of applications in the immigration system has slowed down considerably in the last two years.

While that is understandable to the extent that the Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on all of us, whether individual members of the public or Departments and State services, we are still dealing with the fall-out from that situation and the magnifying effect it had on highlighting the bureaucracy and inefficiency of the immigration system.

All the issues mentioned are magnified manyfold for those particularly marginalised in the system, namely, those in direct provision, victims of human trafficking, migrant women in domestic violence circumstances, unaccompanied minors and many more. In addition, those with linguistic, computer literacy or overall trauma challenges, for example, are further disenfranchised.

We may say this situation is a moment in time but it highlights endemic issues that predate the pandemic. First, there is the overly bureaucratic and paper-based nature of many of our immigration processes. Second, there is a lack of clarity regarding rights and entitlements that often accompany a person’s immigration status. Third, there is the issue of communication and co-ordination across Government services and Departments regarding an individual’s status and rights. It is true that the pandemic was and continues to be a uniquely difficult scenario for all, including Departments. We welcomed throughout the pandemic open lines of communication with the Department of Justice, for example, regarding the difficulties faced. However, the challenges were huge and persist in having an ongoing impact.

The issues experienced magnified an existing need for which we and others in civil society have been calling for many years, namely, the need to modernise and reform our immigration system in Ireland. We note and welcome that the Department of Justice has identified immigration reform as a priority in its current action plan and welcome the opportunity to feed into that process from our experience as a service provider, as I am sure many other civil society organisations, community groups, migrant-led groups and others will as well.

As regards the remit of this committee, we wish to highlight the reality that an individual’s integration experience is often intrinsically linked to their immigration status and the rights which flow from it.

Time does not permit me to go into further detail, but I am happy to discuss these issues and our recommendations for reform in follow-up questions, as well as pointing out the positives that exist and the opportunities that arise through the likes of the migrant integration strategy, as Sr. Breege mentioned.

I would like to raise the issue of the communication of health, in particular vaccine, information to migrant communities and the deficiencies that have been identified in that area of late. This issue is not just one of information, but of challenging disinformation within certain sections of migrant communities. A strategy is needed in this area that directly engages migrants at grassroots levels, with migrant-led organisations, leaders and migrant-relevant media being targeted to address the shortfalls in the communication strategy of the last two years. Again, time does not permit me to go into further detail on this, but I am happy to discuss it in follow up. I thank the committee for the opportunity to address it. I am happy to discuss the positives and our recommendations in follow-up questions.