State ‘must better protect child asylum seekers’

THE Government should do more to protect unaccompanied child asylum seekers, the outgoing representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Dublin has said.

Pia Prutz Phiri, who leaves the job after more than five years, said she was concerned at cases where unaccompanied minors were subsequently reunited with people claiming to be family. Many refugee organisations and researchers believe many of these children are victims of trafficking or arranged marriages.

“We have highlighted to the Government that we would like to see much more follow-up in those cases where children arrive unaccompanied and are subsequently reunited with ‘family’,” said Ms Phiri.

She said local childcare workers in some parts of the country were not following up cases as intensely as in Dublin, where there was a designated unit.

“It’s a question of increasing resources, better coordination between gardaí and asylum institutions and health boards and the training of health board officials,” she said.

Ms Phiri, a Danish national, backed the Ombudsman for Children, Emily Logan, who wants the Government to allow her to investigate complaints regarding the treatment of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum.

Overall, Ms Phiri praised Ireland’s record in addressing the asylum issue.

“Compared to the rest of Europe and the world, Ireland has to be a model as to what can be done efficiently,” she commented.

She said the Government had invested massively in training staff, setting up asylum institutions and speeding up the process.

“There is nowhere in Europe, to my knowledge, where an asylum seeker can arrive and within 20 days already have a first appointment for interview.”

Ms Phiri said Justice Minister Michael McDowell had publicly welcomed refugees and stressed the importance of integration.

She said the issue of integration had been neglected and welcomed the minister’s announcement of a e5 million fund for integration as well as the new National Action Plan Against Racism.

She praised the moves taken by the minister and the gardaí to actively recruit people from ethnic minorities.

“We cannot be complacent when it comes to integration. We need to be proactive. Ireland can learn from some of the mistakes of other countries and hopefully get it right.”

Ms Phiri called on the Government to adopt a wider definition of who could be considered a refugee, thereby removing the backlog of people who apply for leave to stay on humanitarian grounds.

She called on the Government to grant asylum seekers, particularly those here longer than six months, the right to work.

She said the Government should now have “the confidence” to allow independent monitoring of airports and ports to ensure no one who looks for asylum is turned away.

Ms Phiri praised Ireland for increasing from around 50 to 200 the number of people allowed to come here under a special resettlement programme.

She said Ireland was a “model donor” to the UNHCR and had increased its funding to the body, from €3m in 2000 to €14m in 2005.