UCC closure of centre condemned

LEADING academics and immigrant support groups have condemned the decision by University College Cork (UCC) to close the Irish Centre for Migration Studies.

A spokeswoman for the university confirmed the centre, which carries out research on migration and asylum seeker issues for academic, government, EU and non-governmental agencies, is likely to close in October.

The spokeswoman said the decision was based on financial grounds. “G iven the current financial constraints it was not possible for the funding to continue,” she said.

She said the centre had not generated any income for a considerable amount of time. However, executive chairwoman of the Immigration Council of Ireland Sr Stanislaus Kennedy slammed the decision.

“We are taken aback because the centre was providing an invaluable service in terms of good accurate information on immigration and migration,” she said.

She said the role the centre had played in terms of raising public awareness of immigration and migration issues could not be under-estimated.

She also said no education centre should be expected to operate on a business model, generating income.

A spokeswoman for UCC said the decision by the president of the college to close the centre was based on advice from the board of the centre, of which centre director Piaras Mac Éinrí is secretary.

Mr Mac Éinrí was out of the country on Friday and could not be contacted.

Sr Stanislaus has called for a reversal of the closure.

Her call is supported by academics worldwide, including director of the London-based Institute for the Study of European Transformations Professor Mary Hickman; Chair in Canadian-Irish studies in Concordia University Montreal Prof Michael Kenneally and director of the Irish-Scottish studies programme at Victoria University, Wellington Dr Brad Patterson.

In a protest letter last week 60 international academics said closing the centre would negate the pioneering work done by Mr Mac Éinrí and would deprive academic policy, NGOs and statutory communities of a vital source of research and knowledge.

The centre has lobbied in the past for better treatment of asylum seekers