Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I welcome all the people in the Gallery this evening. I hope they could understand the Minister of State who spoke at breakneck speed.

I wish to speak about a Syrian refugee whom I met in Mosney a couple of weeks ago. His own words can bring it home better than I can. He has been in Mosney since June 2016 even though refugees are only supposed to spend a maximum of eight months there. He has a grave injury in his right leg, having been injured in the war. He said:

I have been using crutches for four years. I am disabled. I am a burden to those around me. I am lonely, single and helpless. I need help to cook, clean shower, bath and so on. My family in Lebanon are in a really difficult situation. They live in a camp in a caravan. It is very cold in winter, very hot in summer. [There is] no healthy water. They do not have income for their needs. I send them what I get.

This man is sending them €20 each week to assist his family. By the way, he has not had treatment for his injury. The supportive environment that the Minister of State suggests everybody gets was contradicted by what I saw.

The Minister of State asked about a credible alternative. The credible alternative is that the State would build houses so that we would not have a housing crisis and that we would let people work. Regarding the claim that we have a commitment to solidarity, the Irish State has a signpost that people really should not seek refuge in this country; that is the purpose of direct provision.

I want to put the discussion into context before going into some of the other issues. We have an increasingly unstable world where war, conflict, climate change and economic disaster are forcing millions of people to leave their homes and seek refuge elsewhere.

The UNHCR has stated that currently 65.6 million people have been forcibly displaced; 28,300 a day flee war and conflict; and 55% of all forcibly displaced people are from just three countries: Syria, Afghanistan and South Sudan. It is not as if this is somehow accidental. It has been created by imperialist intervention in the Middle East. There are wars for political interest and profit. The Syrian war in particular shows us the role of imperial and regional powers which have intervened to support different sides in that barbaric conflict. The EU, the USA and Russia have all financed the war and their arms industries have made massive profits in supplying weapons. That is capitalism now generating war. However, when people flee the war fomented by imperialism, they are met with "fortress Europe".

Many undocumented live in the shadows where they are afraid to report any incident to the Garda - even serious crimes. We do not have sanctuary cities as the US does, where one can go and report without fear of being detained, but yet our politicians are beating a path wearing down the red carpet in the White House seeking solutions for our undocumented in the US. That is rank hypocrisy unless we introduce, as is advocated in this report, a regularisation scheme.

I have met undocumented people, many of whom started out being documented and became undocumented for various reasons. As the report shows 84% have lived here longer than five years and 89% are working, usually contributing to the tax system. This needs to be sorted out. Regularising these people would actually benefit all workers in this country. It does not suit any Irish worker to have people undercutting them and being used as exploited labour. Creating a legal status for them would actually benefit Irish workers as well and the trade union movement should be mindful of that. The example has been given of the fishing industry. It is not sufficient to expect an undocumented person to initiate deportation proceedings in the hope of winning an appeal on humanitarian grounds to be considered for regularisation.

Everybody knows direct provision is inhumane and barbaric and puts people in isolation. Obviously my constituency of Dublin West is very diverse. I attended an event in the constituency where I met Syrians. Actually what I met was Irish people who volunteer and help the Syrians out of the goodness of their heart. They asked me if I would take up their issues. If we have a supportive environment why would a Deputy have to go to Mosney to talk to Syrians who were brought here on an official programme? It is not acceptable. I did not see the support the Minister of State is talking about. They should have social workers and - to use the cliché - a wraparound service so that they do not have to get on to the Syrian-Irish community or contact Deputies.

Family reunification, which is identified in the report, was the number one issue among all those whom I met in Mosney. They were very concerned about the fate of their family members who are in precarious situations, as was the case with the man I spoke about earlier. The problem lies with the Irish definition of a family. For people in Syria and other countries the extended family is the family. However, here it is narrowly classed as adult children aged under 18 and it excludes anybody who is over 18.

I met a number of people who are not allowed to bring their 19 year old or 21 year old child over here, which is splitting up the family. Neither are people allowed to bring siblings or aunts and uncles although they are part of the extended family. Particular distress was expressed by one couple who have two adult children, aged 19 and 21, in Germany. Their son who was 22 years old died during the war, and they had expected they could meet again in Europe and start to rebuild their lives but the Irish Government is not permitting that to happen.

The second issue relates to accreditation. Many of the Syrians I met were highly qualified and included lawyers and pharmacists. I met one man who has not been able to get the Pharmaceutical Society to recognise his qualification so that he can seek work. Surely, if the Government brings people over on an agreed programme they should not then have to jump through hoops. Apparently he was told by the authorities here that he must get a letter from the awarding college. That is despite him having his qualification documents. We are talking about political refugees who cannot just get onto the college as they are not supporters of the regime. Could we streamline this process and allow people to take up work in this country? Could we take immediate steps to engage with all the professional bodies to ensure people do not have to go through the same ordeal as the individual to whom I referred?

The war in Syria has impacted on people's ability to complete their education so there are many young people who might not have completed primary or secondary education. We must assist people in that regard. However, there are also people who have secured places on university courses here but they have to pay the non-EEA fees. A number of colleges have agreed to take people in on a more charitable basis. I met one young woman who has a place in UCD but is going to be housed in Portlaoise. One could ask how she is to get from Portlaoise to UCD every day. That would be a four-hour round trip.

Another key problem is housing. It appears to me that no refugees are being placed in Dublin and I am not sure if anyone is going to Cork. It appears that all of the people are being sent to Sligo, Tullamore and other such places and people will generally be quite isolated. The Minister of State might say they should be grateful but we need to look at the reality of whether such people will be able to get work, have access to supports or have any connections. If a person has a place in UCD and he or she is in Sligo, how will he or she take up the place?

See this speech in context