Commission calls for "redress" for asylum seekers

The Chief Commissioner (designate) of the new Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC), has said a new system of redress needs to be put in place urgently for asylum seekers.

Emily Logan, who has just taken on the role after a decade as the Ombudsman for Children, said there was “no proper inspection” of Direct Provision centres.

“We have not put in place a framework to allow those families and those children to tell us what is happening in a way that any other family would be afforded,” Ms Logan told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality, adding that a report would be published in November.

Ms Logan also said the Irish public was “very interested in issues of human rights and social justice” and the new Commission would be trying to bring human rights to life by connecting with communities.

Referencing her past experience in investigating the wrongful removal of two Roma children from their families on the basis of unfounded claims they may have been abducted, Ms Logan said that some communities, such as the Roma community, had “no idea” that human rights existed.

The newly constituted IHREC includes staff from the Equality Authority, and she said some workers in that authority had been “demoralised” by events in recent years, claiming they had been “a difficult number of years”.

On the new designate IHREC, she said: “We don’t have as many staff as we need,” but she added that she was encouraged by the complete lack of departmental interference in her previous role as Children’s Ombudsman. She also said she hoped that an Oireachtas committee could take on a specific Human Rights and Equality role.

“The IHREC is committed to regularly meet with Oireachtas committees as it undertakes its legislative functions. We hope that strong consideration will be given to establishing a dedicated Oireachtas committee to examine equality and human rights matters, with structural linkages to other committees,” she said.