Direct provision system can handle 600 extra refugees

The much-criticised direct provision system will be able to cope with 600 extra refugees being brought to Ireland in September as part of an EU deal, Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald has said.

While human rights agencies have called for more resources to be put into the resettlement of the people mainly fleeing wars in Syria and Eritrea, Ms Fitzgerald said Ireland would not do badly by the refugees.

The direct provision system, where some 4,000 asylum seekers are held for up to nine years before a decision is made on their status, has been branded “inhumane” by Aodhán Ó Riordáin, the junior minister responsible for it. Ms Fitzgerald said the new arrivals would be classed originally as asylum seekers and assessed in the normal way.