Call to revamp laws on refugee detention

Legislation governing the detention of refugees in Ireland should be revamped to ensure people are not deprived of their right to liberty, it was claimed today.

The Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice (JCFJ) called on the Government to bring an end to the internment of asylum seekers entering the country.

Eugene Quinn, director of the JCFJ, said 619 people were detained under immigration provisions for longer than 50 days last year, compared with 367 in 2003.

“Detention involves deprivation of a person’s right to liberty. A state should only use detention as a measure of last resort,” Mr Quinn said, at the launch of the centre’s journal ‘Working Notes, Refugees and Asylum Seekers: No to the Silence of Indifference’.

On the numbers of people incarcerated, he said: “Not only are we detaining people under immigration provisions but the length of time people spend in detention has also increased.”

The director said the 1996 Refugee Act should be reformed to ensure authorities give more detailed information on the reasons for internment and the number of asylum seekers detained.

The centre said statistics have shown 946 people were detained under immigration provisions in 2004.

“Is not clear how many of these 946 people had just arrived at an airport, sought protection and were taken off to prison,” Mr Quinn said, adding clearer procedures to record the reasons for detention under immigration provisions were essential.

There are six grounds outlined in the 1996 Refugee Act under which an immigration officer with reasonable cause can detain an asylum seeker entering the state, including a failure to adequately establish their identity.

“As the law stands an asylum seeker can be detained indefinitely on these grounds. Yet these are some of the core issues that the asylum process is supposed to consider and determine. We call for an end to detention on these grounds and reform of the current legislation,” Mr Quinn said.

Mr Quinn said the centre accepted the state’s right and duty to protect its borders. But he said current practice reflected a bias in favour of security concerns over the state’s duty to protect the rights of vulnerable people seeking asylum.

“Asylum seekers should not be detained except on those grounds that relate to threats to national security or suspected criminal activity and detention on these grounds should be regulated by criminal legislation with due process guarantees and not under immigration control legislation,” he said.

The centre said providing access to legal advice was central to safeguarding the rights of asylum seekers entering the state. Mr Quinn said legal services could be provided to asylum seekers at ports of entry or through the availability of a 24-hour dedicated telephone line with access to a panel of solicitors.