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	An asylum seeker is a person who, from fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, social group, or political opinion, has crossed an international frontier into a country in which he or she hopes to be granted refugee status.</p>
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	Since 2000, asylum seekers in Ireland who are without the means to live independently have been placed in State-administered Direct Provision Accommodation Centres.</p>
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	Under direct provision, asylum seekers and their children are provided with basic communal accommodation, meals, and a meagre weekly living allowance of &euro;19.10 per adult and &euro;9.60 per child.</p>
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	This money is expected to cover all extras in their lives including extracurricular school activities, exam fees, prescription card charges, non-prescription medications, non-essential bus fares such as visiting a friend to children&rsquo;s birthdays, toys and so on.</p>
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	Asylum seekers are not entitled to work while their applications are being processed and as such are prohibited from earning money, supporting themselves or paying taxes.</p>
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	They have no say over where they are accommodated and can be moved from one of the 34 centres across 16 counties without consultation and at a moment&rsquo;s notice.</p>
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	My entry point into the issue of direct provision is from a children&rsquo;s rights perspective.</p>
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	It is informed by my work on related issues as the former Chief Executive of the Children&rsquo;s Rights Alliance; the recommendations of the Government-appointed Special Rapporteur on Child Protection, Dr Geoffrey Shannon; the concerns raised by advocacy groups; and my own recent visits to two direct provision asylum accommodation centres as an independent member of the Seanad.</p>
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	It has taken me a long time to get my head straight about direct provision.</p>
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	It has been difficult to establish which parts of the system belong to the Department of Justice and Equality, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs or indeed the Department of Social Protection.</p>
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	I have struggled to understand the distinction made between children &ldquo;cared for by the State&rdquo;, as is used to describe children in direct provision, and children &ldquo;in the care of the State&rdquo;. Children are falling between the gaps of bureaucracy.</p>
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	I argue passionately that firstly, children are children irrespective of status and secondly, that it is just not credible to claim that children in direct provision are in the care of their parents in circumstances where the parents&rsquo; freedom to make even basic decisions about their children&rsquo;s care &ndash; for example what and when to eat &ndash; is so limited.</p>
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	My overwhelming concern is that direct provision is detrimental to the welfare and development of asylum seekers, and in particular children. As of February 2013, the latest available figures, 1,808 children were residing in direct provision accommodation centres throughout Ireland.</p>
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	There are a range of difficulties, many of which I have raised in the Seanad including the debatable legality of the direct provision system, the lack of an independent complaints mechanism for residents, the absence of independent inspections of direct provision centres where children reside, the decision by Ireland to opt out of the EU Directive to allow asylum seekers to enter the workforce if their application has not been processed after one year, the fact that there are no prospects for post-secondary education for young asylum seekers, which is like hitting a pause button for an uncertain and doubtlessly lengthy period of time, the fettering and erosion of normal family dynamics and functioning and the lack of autonomous decision-making.</p>
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	The ultimate failing of direct provision is the length of time asylum seekers are in the system waiting for their claims to be processed.</p>
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	It is important to remember that when first introduced 13 years ago, direct provision was viewed as a time-limited system with a maximum of six months.</p>
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	If this were the case, I could perhaps tolerate the inadequacies that would present in that time period rather than the outright failings that present in this system where the average length of stay is four years and a significant number have remained in the system for between five to 10 years.</p>
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	So the long-term solution has got to be a system that can determine an asylum seeker&rsquo;s status in a speedy, robust, fair and transparent way.</p>
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	I hope this will be delivered through the Immigration, Residency and Protection Bill, which the Minister for Justice has committed to republish in revised form, but which has ultimately been eight years coming down the track.</p>
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	In the meantime, I am calling on the Government to take the following steps:</p>
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			conduct an examination to establish whether the system of direct provision itself is detrimental to the welfare and development of asylum seekers, in particular children, and whether, if appropriate, an alternative form of support and accommodation could be adopted which is more suitable for families and children</p>
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			&nbsp;to establish an independent complaints mechanism, and</p>
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			&nbsp;to commence independent inspections of direct provision centres where children reside.</p>
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	The Irish Refugee Council is currently looking for 10,000 people to sign its online petition to End Direct Provision. I will certainly be signing.<a href="http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/news-opinion/jillian-van-turnhout-chaos-asylum-2015814">http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/news-opinion/jillian-van-turnhout-chaos-asylum-2015814</a></p>
