Ireland lags behind in reuniting refugee families

IRELAND still lags behind most of Europe regarding refugee family reunification, according to a new report, while a top UN official warned against demonising immigrants during the recession.

A new report published by the Refugee Information Service (RIS) yesterday found that it takes between 24 and 30 months to process a family reunification case here, compared with the European average of between six and 12 months in countries such as Portugal, Denmark, Germany and Britain.

The report, which was written by the RIS head of policy and research, Catherine Kenny, also found that Ireland is the only country out of 12 EU nations surveyed which does not grant a right of appeal to refugees when their applications are refused.