McDowell grants 17,000 right to remain applications to non-nationals

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell yesterday extended right to remain applications for 17,000 non-nationals until 2010 under “rigorous” conditions.

Immigrant rights supporters said the move was ambiguous, insisting it meant thousands of parents were being “forced to jump through hoops” again.

The Government agreed to process applications from non-national parents of Irish-born children under the Irish-Born Child Scheme in 2005. Some 18,000 applications were received prior to January that year, when the Citizenship Referendum came into effect.

Just under 17,000 parents were granted a right to remain in Ireland for two years. Applications to remain for another three years would now be accepted, the minister said yesterday. After this, successful applicants will be eligible to apply for full citizenship.

He said a rigorous approach would be taken in the renewal process. Conditions for applicants include:

* proving they tried to become economically viable in employment or a profession

* took necessary steps, ie, language courses

* were not involved in criminal activity.

Non-national parents were yesterday advised to gather documentation such as passports, national identity cards or other details for applications.

Citizens of the newly- registered EU states, Bulgaria and Romania, will not have to reapply to remain, if their applications were previously accepted by the State or have expired.

The Children’s Rights Alliance and the Coalition Against the Deportation of Irish Children (CADIC) said conditions for non-national parents were “vague,” similar to situations when the same families were asked to apply in 2005.

“If you go for an exam, you know what you will be tested on. There should be no reason why the majority of these applicants are not just brought through a quick and easy process. They’ve already jumped [through] the hoops two years ago.” said the CRA’s chief executive Jillian van Turnhout.

Questions remained over whether part-time, working parents passed as economically viable. Would a parent who could not afford non-EU fees for a language course be refused a right to remain, she asked. Non-national parents had also encountered problems with transferring occupation qualifications to Ireland, she added.

There were also questions as to whether these issues would be considered with applications to remain, stressed the children’s rights advocate. Applicants expected to apply to remain here include non-nationals from Nigeria (6,145), Romania (1,795), China (1,074), the Philippines (993), Pakistan (613), Moldova (567), Ukraine (553), India (479), Bangladesh (425), Ghana (373) and areas from the rest of the world (3,676).