Ireland Says Welcome: A Letter to Jim O’Callaghan TD, Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration

28 January 2025

Dear Minister,

We are writing to you as members of the Ireland Says Welcome Group, a member group of Comhlámh – Development Workers and Volunteers in Global Solidarity. Ireland Says Welcome shares news, information and refugee solidarity initiatives in Ireland and across Europe. Our vision is of a welcoming, inclusive and participatory Ireland for those escaping war, persecution and poverty.

To start, we would like to congratulate you on your appointment as Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, and we would like to wish you the very best in this position. As citizens and residents of Ireland, we look forward to engaging with you over the next five years on issues regarding the rights and needs of refugees and those applying for international protection.

We would also like to take this opportunity to raise some of the concerns that have arisen over the past few years, and to ask you to commit to guaranteeing the rights of those who come here seeking protection, through all stages of their applications, decisions, and integration into Irish and European society (in the case of those who are given Temporary Protection, or who are recognised as refugees or in need of subsidiary protection, or who are granted leave to remain).

Firstly, may we ask you, in your role as Minister for Justice, to raise the worrying issue about deaths of, and violence towards, migrants at EU borders with your colleagues at the European Council? We have been concerned for many years at the number of people getting into distress and drowning in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to reach safety in the EU. We are particularly concerned whether effective efforts are being made by EU coastguards to prevent these deaths [1]. Furthermore, we are concerned at reports of boats in distress being directed towards the force known as the Libyan coastguard and of abuses being committed by that force [2]. As well as that, we find reports of violence towards migrants and deaths of migrants at EU borders to be of extreme concern, as well as reports of migrants being pushed back over the EU borders and suffering assaults and theft by actors who may be working for, or collaborating with, EU States [3]. We believe that all of these reports warrant thorough investigation and that the upholding of human rights must be an indispensable part of EU border management.

In the past number of decades, the EU has been a beacon of hope for people in many countries, promoting human rights and giving guarantees on human rights in its territory. We do not want that legacy to be damaged by what may be gross human rights violations at the EU borders, and we ask you to raise these concerns with your counterparts of other EU countries. We do not believe that Ireland should be a lecturing bystander; we believe that our country can be a supportive neighbour, showing support to other EU countries in their managing of the applications for right of residence in their countries and in upholding human rights in line with the obligations that we all have. On this point, we understand that the first meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Ministers will take place this Thursday and Friday. If you are attending the meeting, we ask you to raise the issue that respect for human rights at EU borders is crucial in order for the bloc to uphold its legal obligations, so that its international standing as a defender of human rights is maintained, and to foster a culture of human rights within the bloc’s borders for everyone who lives here.

Secondly, to move our focus back to Ireland, we feel that it is very important that international protection applicants in our own country are given the necessary supports to present their claims fully – in the form of access to information about the asylum process in a language and format that they can understand, interpreters for them to fill in their international protection questionnaires and for their hearings, and access to lawyers to help them to prepare their applications [4]. We are also concerned at reports that some applicants are required to prepare for, and attend, their hearings from a situation of homelessness [5]. It is very concerning that people are possibly being asked to come to what is often the most crucial meeting of their lives whilst living in a situation where survival in distressing and dangerous conditions must be their focus. We ask you to guarantee that the necessary supports, and adequate time to access them, are guaranteed to everyone who requests international protection in Ireland, and to guarantee that those applicants who have been forced to live on the streets are not required to begin preparing for their hearings until they have been provided with accommodation.

Thirdly, we ask you to commit to implementing the recommendations of the Catherine Day Report [6], published in 2020, which found that the system of Direct Provision should be replaced with a system which not only upholds the human rights of international protection applicants but also facilitates their integration into Irish society. We ask you to work to establish a system of own-door accommodation for international protection applicants with a living expenses allowance that does not force them into dire poverty. We realise the gravity of the housing crisis that exists in Ireland and the fact that thousands of people in our country – both original Irish and immigrants – are forced to live in homeless accommodation, and we realise that such complex problems as direct provision and this housing crisis cannot be solved overnight. However, we believe that, where there is a situation where human rights are being breached, work must at least begin to address the problem. We believe that rights cannot be provided for unless work is underway to achieve improvements.

Finally, we must return to an issue that we mentioned above: The State’s failure to provide safe accommodation to thousands of men who are applying for international protection. At this moment, over 3,000 single men who have sought safety in the State have been forced to sleep, and fend for themselves, on the streets [7], which is a breach of the State’s obligations. This has been found to be a breach of the EU Charter on Fundamental Rights by the High Court [8]. Although accommodation for these men is the responsibility of the central Government, the Government does not appear to be fulfilling its duty and it appears to be leaving these men to be buffeted around by local authorities, public bodies, the Gardaí, and dangerous actors, possibly of the far right, who carry out attacks, verbally abuse and threaten them, and destroy their belongings [9]. We ask you to guarantee that everyone who applies for international protection in Ireland is given a safe place to live while their applications are being processed, in line with the State’s legal responsibilities.

Thank you for taking the time to read our concerns. As we have said, we look forward to engaging with you over the next five years.

Yours sincerely,

Ireland Says Welcome, a Member Group of Comhlámh.

[1] What we know about the migrant tragedy off Greece,

After a tragic shipwreck, no peace for the dead or living

Boat carrying 400 migrants adrift between Italy and Malta

[2] LightHouse Reports: 2,200 Frontex emails to Libya

https://www.lighthousereports.com/investigation/2200-frontex-emails-to-libya/

[3] Migrant found dead after shooting at Greece-Turkey border

Migrant accidentally shot dead by North Macedonian police

Human Rights Watch – Morocco/Spain: Horrific Migrant Deaths at Melilla Border: Investigate Fully, Preserve Evidence, Ensure Dignified Treatment of the Dead

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