Politics. Law. Rights
Today, the Exploring Direct Provision project launches the Reception Conditions Decisions Database. Since June 2018, the International Protection Appeals Tribunal (IPAT) has had jurisdiction to determine certain issues regarding an individual’s reception rights under the European Communities (Reception Conditions) Regulations 2018. The decisions released today were obtained under two Freedom of Information Act 2014 requests. […]
Today (20 November 2019) is the 60th anniversary of the UN General Assembly Declaration on the Rights of the Child and the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. As discussed in a previous blog post, entitlement to child benefit essentially ended for children in the asylum […]
From 2004, the Department of Social and Family Affairs interpreted the habitual residence condition in Irish social welfare law as definitively removing asylum seekers from entitlement to all social welfare payments, but for direct provision allowance. The habitual residence condition was introduced during the 2004 accession of new EU Member States. The purpose of the […]
During the establishment of direct provision accommodation centres, the question of weekly cash payments for asylum seekers were also discussed. In November 1999, the Department of Social and Family Affairs (now Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection) suggested that a ‘comfort payment’ of €19.10 per adult and €9.60 per child per week in direct […]
There has never been any real whole-of-government evaluation of the degree to which direct provision accommodation centres should continue to be utilised. At least on a simple monetary evaluation, the Department of Justice found in 2010 and 2019, that the entirety of the system of direct provision is more expensive per head than it would […]
The Direct Provision Files provide an insight into responses to institutionalised living within direct provision accommodation centres. Given low weekly allowances, who should cover costs of items such as nappies (diapers) for children, the cost of school books, school tours etc? What if a person seeks a move to a direct provision centre to be […]
The introduction of direct provision accommodation for asylum seekers was planned throughout 1998 to 2000. Prior to its introduction, asylum seekers were entitled to rent supplement, and could source their own accommodation in the private sector. The Direct Provision Files provide a clear narrative as to why the Government at the time sought to introduce […]
We are approaching twenty years of the system of direct provision for asylum seekers in Ireland. The phrase ‘direct provision’ is short-hand for the communal accommodation, food, low weekly payment, health and education rights that asylum seekers in Ireland are entitled to. Over the last (almost) two decades, there has been sustained criticism of the […]
