TRALEE: Asylum Rights Now!

kerry | rights, freedoms and repression | event notice Friday March 27, 2009 21:31 by sean moraghan - Tralee Anti-Racism Network earthsoulrocknroll at gmail dot com

Public Meeting ALL WELCOME!

"Civil Rights for Asylum Seekers"

Joe Moore, Cork Anti-Racism Network
Uche Odinukwe, Nigerian Asylum Activist
Rosanna Flynn Residents Against Racism

Grand Hotel, Tralee, Friday 3rd April @ 8PM

~Hosted by ‘Tralee Anti-Racism Network’
~in association with ‘People Before Profit Alliance (Tralee)’

*Do you know that, in Ireland, asylum seekers are denied the right to work?
Instead, they are given €19.10 per week to live on. Many are fully qualified professionals, who want to work, and would be assets to society, and add value to the economy.

*Do you know that asylum seekers have no say over where they live?
The majority are in what is called Direct Provision, which is hostel-type accommodation, often in isolated areas. In these centres, three or four single people share one room, often from different countries, speaking different languages, and with different cultures. Two single parents share one room, with their respective children, with neither having privacy. Meals are at set times, with residents having no control over the menu. These centres are controlled by private security, discouraging contact between the residents and the local community, their neighbours.

*Do you know that all asylum seekers over 18 years are denied access to education?
Children who complete their Leaving Cert cannot continue their education to Colleges of Further Education or 3rd level. Instead, they are given €19.10. And left to vegetate.

*Do you know that the majority of asylum seekers in Ireland are *denied* refugee status?
After years in the system without rights, they will eventually be served with a deportation order. When this is executed, men, women and children, who have committed no crime, are put in prison, prior to deportation. On the specially chartered flights, each person is accompanied by at least two immigration police. Medical staff are also present on the flight - not to attend to people's health - but to restrain those who resist.

All this is carried out in the name of the Irish people - a people with a long history of emigration!

Tralee Anti-Racism Network says enough is enough: civil rights for all asylum seekers now.

Scrap the Immigration Bill
The government’s 'Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill 2008', if it comes into law, would make a desperately unjust system even worse. The Bill should be scrapped, and replaced with a system built on fairness and respect for human rights.

End Deportations
Those seeking asylum in Ireland include people fleeing from war and persecution, along with people trying to escape poverty -- just like thousands of Irish people have done in the past. Instead of wasting money on trying to deport them, Ireland should welcome them here to live -- in safety.

Take the Asylum System away from Politicians
Asylum applications are decided by officials who are hired and fired by the Minister for Justice. Whether they keep their job depends on how satisfied the Minister is with their decisions. Decisions should be made free from political interference, and based on human rights protection. The system should be taken out of the hands of politicians altogether, and given over to an independent body, like the Human Rights Commission. 
 
Remember The Irish Diaspora
More then 70 million Irish people live outside Ireland. There is hardly a family in Ireland who doesn’t have relatives living abroad. Ordinary Irish people have an empathy with people of any nationality who wish to settle in Ireland. State racism is responsible for the plight of asylum seekers living in Ireland. It behoves us to do anything in our power to highlight the conditions they are forced to live under.
And to insist that this is not being done in our name

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"Civil Rights for Asylum Seekers"
Grand Hotel, Tralee,
Friday 3rd April @ 8PM

All Welcome!