Refugee Council critical of bill on asylum

The Irish Refugee Council has hit out at planned legislation for dealing with asylum seekers as being more concerned with quick decisions leading to deportation, as it is with identifying refugees who need protection.

The bill, published last week, aims to reduce the length of time asylum applicants spend in the direct provision system through establishing a single applications procedure for international protection.

The IRC’s criticism comes just days after CEO Sue Conlanleft the Government’s working group on the asylum-seeker protection process, after the Government published the Heads of the International Protection Bill “without allowing the working group to have sight of or discuss the most significant changes in refugee law in Ireland for almost 20 years”.