Direct Provision working group is only an exercise in public relations

Last month, the CEO of the Irish Refugee Council (IRC) stepped down from the Ministerial Working Group on Direct Provision and the Protection Process.

In her resignation statement, Sue Conlan said changes to legislation proposed by members of the group had been continually resisted by the Department of Justice and Equality and that to carry on with the process would be “against the best interests of the people in the protection system now and those who will come to Ireland seeking protection in the future”.

Anti Racism Network Ireland calls on other sitting members to follow suit. At the same time, we are saddened by these developments. The State has, once again, shown its contempt for the vulnerable, its defensiveness towards those willing to work with it.

Moreover, the resignation brings into focus what protesting asylum seekers and supporters have been saying since late last year: that the working group process was only ever cosmetic. It was set up not to deliver meaningful change, but to diffuse the public relations embarrassment of ‘direct provision’, and deflect attention away from the Government’s real project, which is stringent immigration legislation under the guise of ‘reform’.

Anti Racism Network Ireland appeals to the nine remaining members of the working group to step down. Such action would reinvigorate the campaign to bring a real end to direct provision.

Anne Mulhall

Sive Bresnihan

Anti-Racism Network Ireland

Dublin