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Short thread.. still on policy towards asylum seekers; in the last couple of years RIA - the reception and integration agency has stopped providing accomodation overnight in Dublin for people attending their interview with the international protection office, people can in theory
claim back money for their travel etc from Department of Social Protection but this requires them to have it up front- most people I know borrow it from others in the centres which can lead to tension etc if payments from DSP are slow.
It should be the responsibility of the state to resource and provide for people who the state has placed at the furthest corners of the country with poor public transport and 38 euros per week to live on if it requires them to go to dublin
Particularly when in most cases it will require an overnight stay - for example it takes approx 4-5 hours by taxi and bus or train to get to Dublin from Lisdoonvarna if you time it right and the interviews can take hours or even be done over a couple of days.
If you have to bring children in that situation you can imagine what it is like. The second indefensible situation is when asylum seekers are hospitalised- or their children are, again taking Clare as an example they end up in Limerick hospital without any essentials-
Clothes, money for food, toileteries supplies etc often they need phone credit and may have no way of leaving the hospital. They may also have children or partners in hospital and be unable to support themselves while they are there or even have other small children to mind
These are failures of the state to provide for people whom they have actually disenfranchised by putting them in remote institutions with an insufficient allowance or access to services. People in these situations need help and often get it from volunteers
But the state should have provided for both of these entirely predictable and regularly occurring situations. In Limerick this weekend great women wrapped their care around two mothers in that situation but in many cases no one even knows that asylum seekers are in hospital
The DOJ and RIA are not equipped or for social care or social work but if the state renders people temporarily dependent as in remote DP centres then it has a duty to provide for them and we have to find some way to hold them to account as well as helping directly.
