The Legal Breakdown: the Asylum System

LEE MARTIN LAW CORRESPONDENT

Under the Common European Asylum System, EU countries have a shared responsibility to welcome asylum seekers in a dignified manner and ensure that they are treated fairly and efficiently with similar outcomes no matter where an applicant applies.

Lord Mayor of Dublin, Caroline Conroy, recently stated that recent anti-migrant protests in Dublin and Cork are being orchestrated by the same far-right activists who stoked similar protests in the East Wall area of Dublin in December. Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien, has stated, “People have a right to protest in the appropriate place, but they don’t have the right to intimidate people.”

Decades of under investment by successive governments in social services, including housing, allowed the growth of anti-migrant sentiment. This sentiment is now harnessed by organised groups to stoke fear and resentment towards “others” in society and advance a growing ultra nationalist agenda.

Asylum is a fundamental right and an international obligation for countries, as recognised in the 1951 Geneva Convention on the Protection of Refugees. Misinformation is easy to communicate, particularly on social media, and this piece aims to clarify the legal definitions of some current phrasing around the International Protection System.

Key Legislation

There are 5 legal instruments governing standards and cooperation amongst EU countries under the European Union Agency for Asylum:

• The Asylum Procedures Directive - Sets out the conditions for decisions.

• The Reception Conditions Directive - Ensures common standards throughout the EU.

• The Qualification Directive -

Clarifies grounds for granting protection.

• The Dublin Regulation - Clarifies the rules governing the relations between states.

• The EURODAC regulationAuthorises the use of fingerprints of protection seekers.

Asylum Seeker (also known as International Protection Applicants)

People seeking protection as refugees, who are waiting for a decision on their applications, are legally entitled to remain in the state until their application for protection is decided.

Asylum seekers do not access social housing or the Irish social welfare system; they enter direct provision where they are provided with food and shelter, a weekly payment and a medical card until their application is processed. If an asylum seeker is waiting more than 5 months for a decision, they can obtain permission to work for 6 months.

Refugee

Once granted protection an Asylum Seeker/International Protection Applicant legally becomes a refugee. A refugee is anyone who cannot return to their country for fear of persecution for one of the following five reasons: race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group and political opinion.

A refugee will not be forcibly returned to their country of origin under the International Protection Act 2015 and social welfare entitlements generally fall under the same as those of an Irish citizen. For example a refugee may work, access education, benefit from social welfare and housing supports, live in Ireland for 3 years, access a travel document and apply for family reunification. A refugee may apply for Irish citizenship after 3 years.

Temporary Protection

The 2001 Temporary Protection Directive is an exceptional measure which provides immediate and temporary protection in the event of a mass influx of displaced persons from non-EU countries who are unable to return to their country of origin. Once triggered by the European Council, Temporary Protection extends asylum-like access to supports for non-EU citizens. These supports include a residence permit, employment, accommodation, social welfare, medical care, education for children, free movement within EU countries, etc. Temporary protection can last up to 3 years.

Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is legally defined as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit. Men, women and children of all ages and from all backgrounds can become victims of this crime, which occurs in every region of the world. Traffickers often use violence or fraudulent employment agencies and fake promises of education and job opportunities to trick and coerce their victims.

A perfect storm of conditions occurred in the last 3 years with Brexit, COVID and the war in Ukraine which changed the face and nature of the responsibility on Ireland to those in need under its legal obligations. The unprecedented influx of Temporary Protection applicants and International Protection applicants comes from Ukrainians fleeing war and those who held off on movement during lockdowns; and who may otherwise have applied in Britain which has now become a “third country” after removing all of its EU obligations.

This effectively caused a re-direc- tion for many to Ireland, the only English-speaking country left in Europe. All of these factors make for a huge cohort of very vulnerable people arriving in Ireland with little notice. Unfortunately, these conditions are breeding grounds for hate.

Ireland does not have effective hate crime legislation, unlike our neighbours in England and Wales. In November 2016 the Garda PULSE system was updated with 11 new categories to capture different types of hate crimes in Ireland, which was a welcome development and potentially needs to be updated to protect the current influx of migrants.

Greek Court Rejects Charges Against Irish Aid Worker Who Helped Migrants in Lesbos

LEE MARTIN LAW CORRESPONDENT

Acourt in Greece rejected charges against a group of aid workers and volunteers, including one Irish man, who participated in migrant rescue operations in a ruling on procedural grounds.

The case, in which 24 people were charged over their work with migrants newly arriving on Lesbos, drew widespread criticism from human rights organisations. The defendants argue they were assisting people whose lives were at risk.

“Trials like this are deeply concerning because they criminalise life-saving work and set a dangerous precedent. There has already been a chilling effect, with human rights defenders and humanitarian organisations forced to halt their human rights work in Greece and other EU countries,” said the UN Human Rights Office prior to the court decision.

Those on trial included prominent Syrian human rights worker, Sarah Mardini, a refugee and a competitive swimmer whose sister, Yusra Mardini, was part of the refugee swimming team at the Olympic Games in 2016 and 2021. The sisters’ story was made into a Netflix movie.

Irishman and fellow volunteer, Sean Binder, who was in Lesbos to attend the trial, spent more than 3 months in a jail in Lesbos after his 2018 arrest on charges including espionage, forgery and unlawful use of radio frequencies.

The court accepted objections by defendants that the prosecution had failed to adhere to proper procedure in filing the charges, that prosecution documents were not translated for the foreign defendants and that the espionage charges were vague.

The court dismissed the charges over radio frequencies as the law they were filed under has since been abolished. The decision means the case has collapsed as the five-year statute of limitations on the espionage and forgery charges expires in early February and the prosecution is unlikely to have enough time to refile the case.

Greece, which saw around a million people cross to its shores from neighbouring Turkey at the height of a refugee crisis in 2015, has clamped down on migration. Greece erected a fence along much of its land border with Turkey and increased sea patrols near its islands. Greek officials say they have a strict but fair migration policy. They also deny, despite increasing evidence to the contrary, conducting illegal summary deportations of people arriving on Greek territory without allowing them to apply for asylum. This is a controversial procedure known as “pushbacks”.