IBEC, unions call for refugee work rights

Employers, trade unions and religious leaders have joined forces today in a call for asylum seekers to be given the right to work six months after they apply to stay in Ireland.

Not only is the exclusion of most asylum seekers from the labour market "morally indefensible" but it is uneconomic, as they could help solve Ireland’s current labour shortage, the group said in a report.

The call comes in a policy document called The Right to Work - The Right to Dignity, which is supported by the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC), the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) and the Conference of Religious in Ireland (CORI), published to mark World Refugee Day.

Aileen O’Donoghue, IBEC’s assistant director of social policy, said: "The current position simply does not make sense and cannot be justified from an economic or social perspective.

"Rather than perceiving asylum-seekers as a problem we should start viewing them as a real resource to this society.

"Asylum-seekers have a useful contribution to make, particularly if this important labour pool can be tapped to help overcome some of our labour shortages."

Peter O’Mahony, chief executive of the Irish Refugee Council, said the situation was "inconsistent with Ireland’s commitment to human rights" and "makes a mockery of commitments to social inclusion".

Those who claimed asylum since July 1999 are normally banned from taking up paid employment, while cash welfare benefits are limited to £15 per person per week, the group said.

Asylum seekers should be given the right to work if the Government fails to meet its objective of dealing with their claims within six months.

And unsuccessful asylum seekers, who had been granted the right to work and whose applications for asylum are subsequently rejected, should be eligible to apply to remain in Ireland as immigrant workers.

Peter Cassells, general secretary of ICTU, said: "To force human beings, who are strangers in need, to remain idle for an indeterminate period of time is a denial of their fundamental human rights."

Fr Sean Healy, of CORI’s justice commission, said: "The hostility and suspicion towards asylum seekers are linked, in part, to the belief that they will be welfare-dependent.

"Therefore removing asylum seekers from the incomes and lifestyles of the majority is contrary to the Government’s stated goal of promoting social cohesion with balanced economic and social policies."