Immigrant support groups ‘refused entry to hostels’

IMMIGRANT support groups are increasingly being prevented from entering direct provision accommodation by managers, it has been claimed.

A spokesman for Integrating Ireland said the power managers have over residents is “horrendous” and its representatives are not allowed into some hostels.

He said asylum seekers were being transferred between centres with no warning and no right of reply.

“People have been put into a taxi at nine o’clock at night with children to be transferred some distances,” he said. “We are not allowed into certain hostels simply because we are trying to give asylum seekers a voice.”

Integrating Ireland also confirmed that asylum seekers have claimed certain hostel managers have told GPs not to write letters which might allow them to change rooms or accommodation on medical grounds.

“Above all, these places are profit-making institutions,” he said.

A spokesperson for Nasc, a Cork-based immigrant support group, said on one hand the Department of Justice Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) funded support groups, while on the other hand it did not allow them access to the people they are trying to help.

Meanwhile, Dr Bernard Ruane, a Tralee-based GP who works with asylum seekers, said 90% of them are suffering from depression and other mental illnesses as a direct result of the situation they find themselves in here. He said the main cause of their depression was idleness, because they are not allowed to work.

According to RIA, which awards and negotiates the contracts, it monitors, inspects and reviews direct provision on an ongoing basis to ensure adherence to contractual obligations.