Migrant workers unaware of rights

MIGRANT workers who become homeless experience “overt racism” from within the system and are not being provided with sufficient translation services, according to a homeless charity.

Crosscare officer Wayne Stanley said migrant workers were facing discrimination and being told they are not entitled to any welfare payments when they might be, and in some cases people have not been provided with translation services and so were not fully aware of what was required.

Mr Stanley said people were being offered a ticket home and not even given the opportunity to apply for benefits. He said latest figures from the charity’s Amien Street service showed that more than 30% of new clients presenting in the first four months of this year were not Irish.

Also, Mr Stanley said that Crosscare hostels have been directed by local authorities and social welfare offices that anyone who has not been deemed to have an entitlement to a payment or who has simply not yet claimed an entitlement should only be given one night’s accommodation at a time and has to be directed to the ‘new communities unit’ (a supplementary welfare section in Dublin to which non-Irish people are directed) the next day.

Here they are assessed for entitlement and offered a ticket home if there is no entitlement.

Last year the Government spent €151,863 on flights to repatriate 663 EU nationals who became homeless. “Local authorities require a person be in payment in order to have access to local authority housing or equal access to homeless services,” he said.

He cited the example of a man who came to Ireland in 2004 and who has resided here continuously since.

“He has a substantive work record in that time. He had been in payment and state-funded accommodation after becoming unemployed and homeless. His payment was reviewed and he was found not to be a worker or habitually resident and was excluded from his accommodation.

“When he presented to Crosscare we appealed the decision on the grounds that he was clearly a worker under EU law and argued that under the five factors he was habitually resident.”

A comprehensive article on migrant homelessness in Ireland is set to be published in Feantsa, the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless.