Migrant workers ‘denied basic rights in Ireland’

MIGRANT workers still aren’t receiving full rights in Ireland and not enough resources are being given to help and support them, according to the Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) and the ICTU.

The warnings were made to coincide with International Migrants’ Day 2006, which is taking place in Ireland — and across the globe — today.

The ICI said 4,800 migrants and Irish people sought advice from the council between July 2005 and July 2006.

Stanislaus Kennedy, Founder of the ICI, said that more funding is needed if the organisation is to cope with the increased demand for advice and help services for migrants.

He said that the ICI was struggling to meet the demand for help.

The ICI urged politicians to use the forthcoming Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill to develop a coordinated immigration strategy, especially for those migrants who want to live in Ireland permanently.

One of the biggest problems faced by EU migrants is the refusal to have their non-EU spouse accepted into Ireland.

ICTU equality officer, David Joyce, said many migrant workers weren’t being afforded full protection.

Mr Joyce explained that many live-in migrant workers aren’t even assured abed to sleep in every night.

“It would seem ludicrous and grossly unfair to all right-thinking people that a live-in worker might not even be assured a proper bed, or a private room in which to sleep, but that is the case,” he said.

“As things stand, an employer can put a fold-up bed in a downstairs room that becomes a ‘bedroom’ after the family has gone to bed. Where’s the decency in that? Servants in Dickensian times enjoyed better conditions.”

Mr Joyce said that under Towards 2016, Congress negotiated the development of a code of practice that would clearly set out and establish the rights of those people working in private homes.

Meanwhile, a report on migrant workers in the North has found they face serious problems with racist violence. It confirms the “routine nature of inequality and exploitation” experienced by many migrant workers in the North.