Call for special visa to help immigrants
The Migrant Rights Centre of Ireland (MRCI) yesterday launched a renewed campaign for the visa proposal, which it says would allow undocumented migrants to regularise their status here.
The MRCI said it dealt with between 60 and 70 undocumented workers at any one time. Many come to them because they were being exploited by their employer, who had exerted control over them because of the terms of the current work permit system.
This can lead to workers being exploited and afraid to come forward for fear of being deported, the MRCI said. In many cases they will leave the employer who organised the original work permit, and end up “living in the shadows”, working in various jobs and becoming undocumented in the eyes of the State.
Two speakers at yesterday’s press conference in Dublin told how their undocumented status meant they were unable to return home to visit sick and dying relatives, for fear that they would not be allowed back into Ireland.
MRCI drop-in-centre co-ordinator Jacqueline Healy said provision for the six-month ‘Bridging Visa’ should be included in the upcoming Immigration and Residency Bill.
She claimed that the situation regarding undocumented migrants was similar to that of the undocumented Irish in America, and that if the Government did not address the issue it would be both a “gross contradiction and hypocritical”.
“This is a practical and humanitarian measure, and far less extreme than the type of measures the Government is advocating for on behalf of undocumented Irish migrants in the USA,” she said.
Ms Healy also referred to a recent Red C opinion poll in which three-quarters of respondents said undocumented workers should be given the opportunity to legalise their status. She said this showed the Government was “lagging behind public sentiment” on the issue.
No other country operates such a Bridging Visa system, but MRCI Michael Gilmore said a new and innovative way of dealing with the issue of undocumented migrant workers was necessary.
Meanwhile, a group linked to the Conference of Religious of Ireland and the Irish Missionary Union has met with Mr Lenihan to discuss the Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Bill.
The faith-based Act to Prevent Trafficking (APT) group made a number of suggestions to the minister regarding the bill, including allowing trafficking victims to stay for up to six months, instead of the suggested 30 days, and that victims be provided with social assistance a and housing provision.
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