This email from the Minister for Justice prompted my wife & I to offer whatever help we can to the 4 unaccompanied refugee children stranded in Greece that Ireland have so graciously accepted
Since returning from a trip to the refugee camps of Europe & Serbia one of the questions I’m always asked is: “What can we do?”
One thing that we can all do is put pressure on our elected representatives to take more action.
Recently my wife and I signed a petition via Uplift.
In short the petition called for Frances Fitzgerald, the Irish Minister for Justice, to stand by her statement about prioritising unaccompanied refugee children. This request wasn’t an abstract, intellectual request. We’re talking about 35 children that the Director of the Greek Asylum Service tweeted there was no room for.
We may not be able to help the thousands of refugee children separated from their families, but we can help these 35 children who need urgent refuge.
This was the generic response we received but to get to the point, the Irish government are willing to accept 4 children at the moment with the obligatory suggestion that this number may be increased in the future.
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am directed by the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality Ms.
Frances Fitzgerald T.D. to refer to your recent email regarding the
unaccompanied minors in Greece.As you may be aware, the Government agreed in September 2015 to establish
the Irish Refugee Protection Programme (IRPP) and to accept up to 4,000
persons overall under the EU’s Relocation and Resettlement programmes. This
number is expected to be further increased by family reunifications. So far
273 people have been resettled in Ireland including children with a further
247 expected before the end of this year. The pace of the Relocation
Programme across the EU has not progressed as fast as Member States had
anticipated largely due to operational issues in the setting up of the
‘hotspot’ locations in Italy and Greece. This is a source of frustration as
Ireland continues to stand ready to accept greater numbers than has so far
been possible and we have been engaging actively with the Greek and Italian
authorities to support them in their efforts to kick-start this process.In June, the Programme Director for the Irish Refugee Protection Programme
travelled to Greece to offer our full support to the Greek authorities to
expedite our commitments. The outcome of that visit has been very positive
with our Greek colleagues committing to significantly increasing the
numbers available to Ireland over the coming months. This will greatly
facilitate Ireland’s efforts to meet the targets foreseen in last
September’s Government decision. To date, 38 persons have arrived in
Ireland under the Relocation programme, including 22 children (almost 60%
of the total number of persons admitted). A further 32 relocated asylum
seekers will arrive in Ireland from Greece early in September. A selection
mission to accept an additional 40 cases was completed last month and
further missions to Greece will take place every month with increasingly
larger numbers being processed.In announcing the Programme, the Government recognised the importance of addressing the position of unaccompanied children. The relocation of asylum seekers is a complex and sensitive process, involving various aspects of European and domestic law, which has never been attempted on anything
approaching the scale necessitated by the current crisis. In addition to
the logistical challenges, human rights and security considerations must be
taken into account. In the cases of unaccompanied children, who must be
dealt with through the prism of the principle of the best interests of the
child and the prospect of family reunification, the complexity is
increased.The most recent meeting of the Task Force, established to oversee the
implementation of the Irish Refugee Protection Programme (IRPP), chaired by the Tánaiste, focused on finding an approach to taking unaccompanied minors from Greece. From a domestic perspective, unaccompanied minors taken in under the relocation strand of the IRPP will be cared for by Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, which operates under the auspices of the
Department of Children and Youth Affairs and has statutory responsibility
for the care of unaccompanied minors in the State. Tusla have recently
confirmed that they will be in a position to accept four unaccompanied
minors from October and they are trying to put in place a resource package to take in a larger number.The ongoing migration crisis is a serious and extremely complex challenge
facing the EU with numerous pressure points and it is important that there
is a coherent and coordinated response.The Tánaiste continues to work proactively with her colleagues in Europe to
ensure that Ireland and the European Union responds comprehensively to all
aspects of the ongoing migration and refugee crisis. The Tánaiste shares
your concerns in relation to unaccompanied minors as an especially
vulnerable group and expects this issue to remain high on the agenda at EU
level.Yours sincerely,
____________________
Niall Colgan
Private Secretary to the Tánaiste
and Minister for Justice and Equality
My response:
4, seriously? 4 out of 35. 11.4%.
In an email filled with a lot of small numbers this one really stands out. No wonder the Minister directed you to write this email…I too would be embarrassed to send it myself!
The positive outcome of all of this?
We didn’t hesitate to contact Tusla- The Child and Family Agency here in Ireland to offer to help in whatever way we can. They were very responsive and we have a call set up with the COO next week.
