Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. I am delighted to be able to speak strongly in favour of this important Bill. I commend Senator Bacik and the Labour Party Senators for their work on bringing it forward. I also welcome the guests in the Public Gallery who have worked very hard on the issue.

The Bill proposes a modest, humane, compassionate change and I urge my colleagues across the House to support it. It seeks to provide a pathway to regularise the position of the small number of undocumented children in Ireland who, despite having been born and raised here, are denied citizenship and risk deportation because of their status. It is not acceptable in a modern, democratic society as recent, high-profile cases have made absolutely clear.

Some speakers have already touched on the case, which was extensively discussed last month, in which the State sought to deport a nine year old boy from Wicklow to China despite the fact he was born and raised in Ireland and has spent his entire life here. He goes to school in St. Cronan’s in Bray and it was really heartening and inspiring to see his friends and classmates rallying behind him and opposing what was happening. Those kids could see a clear injustice. They understood how cruel and inhumane it would be to take this boy from his home, friends, school and life and send him to the other side of the world to a place he has never been.It rightly shocked so many of us and it provided a big impetus for change. It highlighted a problem in our system and our job as legislators is to fix it. There is an extreme callousness and heartlessness in the policy as it currently stands and it is something people are realising as these cases continue to make headlines. After the situation in Bray became public, more than 50,000 people signed a petition calling for the deportation to be halted on humanitarian grounds. Those people recognise that Ireland is Eric’s home, that he belongs here, and that no one benefits from his deportation.

Just last week, a Behaviour & Attitudes poll showed that more than 70% of people believe that those born in Ireland should be entitled to citizenship. This figure is important as it demonstrates how people are viewing the human cost of our current policy and asking for change. This modest, sensible Bill is an important step in that direction. It deals with young people who have spent their entire lives in Ireland and who are as much a part of the rich fabric of this country as any of us.

In this spirit, I want to say a special word of thanks to the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland, MRCI, which has done Trojan work on this issue, especially through the Justice for the Undocumented campaign. In particular, I commend this young, paperless and powerful youth group, which comprises young undocumented people living here and campaigning for change. They are represented in the Public Gallery tonight. In my work as a Senator I have been privileged to meet them on several occasions and they are an incredible group - smart, funny, talented, dedicated and committed to changing their country for the better. Ireland is their home, they want to improve it and this country is so lucky to have them. They have spoken out bravely about the trauma of growing up undocumented in Ireland. It is heartbreaking to hear descriptions of the mental stress that comes from hiding irregular migration status from friends, family and public authorities and the stigma associated with it. No child should have to go through this. They talk about their aspirations to get on and achieve in life, but many avenues are needlessly and cruelly blocked off to them. One member of the group spoke about the feeling of knowing that, no matter how hard one works and how many points one gets in his or her leaving certificate, third level education is just not an option. They launched a powerful, inspiring short film last night, and I urge my colleagues to watch it and to hear in their words why the system as it stands is just not right.

We recoiled in horror when US President Donald Trump outlined plans to cancel the famous dreamers regularisation programme in the US, but no comparable system exists here. At the moment, the only legal process available to these children is to seek humanitarian leave to remain, but this is a deeply flawed system. There is no clear criteria or process involved and it is not fair on the people involved or on the Minister. As a member of the Joint Committee on Justice and Equality, I was recently asked to carry out a review of Ireland’s migration policies. One of the key recommendations to come out of that process was the need for a transparent, fair regularisation scheme that would allow undocumented people, both children and adults, to come forward and regularise their status. I acknowledge progress has been made on this recently, and I commend the Minister of State on his commitment to continue working on this, but I urge him to take heed of the research produced by MRCI and other organisations outlining how we can make these systems fairer and more humane. We have seen other EU states relying on clear criteria like numbers of years in school and proof of residency and that is something we should also examine. It puts the best interests of the child and young person first and rightly prioritises their education, overall development, well-being, and rights.

In 2016, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child observed that our immigration system had failed to address the needs of undocumented children, in light of our obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. In its review, it emphasised that: "all children are entitled to the full protection and implementation of their rights under the Convention", and that these rights must be "guaranteed for all children under the State party’s jurisdiction, regardless of their migration status or that of their parents". It went on to directly call for a legal framework with clear, accessible procedures to regularise the status of children and their families in irregular migration situations. Ireland needs to report on its compliance with the convention by 2020, and I would appreciate it if the Minister of State could give some indication on how the Government intends on responding to these concerns.

I would like to briefly mention the case of Nonso Muojeke in Tullamore, which also made headlines recently. It was a similar situation, in that his classmates rallied against a deportation order that was clearly unjust and I was glad that the case was resolved. However, while the same arguments made against the deportation in Bray last month applied, in that he had spent his childhood in Ireland and grown up there, the fact that he was brought to Ireland at 2 years of age means that he still will not qualify for citizenship based on his place of birth. That makes it clear that more needs to be done on this issue, and I urge the Government to follow up on this excellent Bill with concrete proposals that can help all undocumented children living in Ireland. It should not be up to young children and their school friends to plead for decency. The State has a legal and a moral obligation to ensure that clear pathways exist for these children, and that they can live happily and exercise their rights. I am so delighted to support this Bill as an important step in that direction. I thank the Senators who have tabled it and commend it to the House.