Direct provision protections demanded
by Bernard Harbor
 
ICTU’s international officer David Joyce said: “There is no conflict between measures to protect public health and human rights. It’s simply not in the public health interest to have direct provision centres that potentially spread the virus quickly.”
ICTU’s international officer David Joyce said: “There is no conflict between measures to protect public health and human rights. It’s simply not in the public health interest to have direct provision centres that potentially spread the virus quickly.”

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) has called on justice minister Charlie Flanagan to put urgent measures in place to protect people living in direct provision centres during the Covid-19 crisis.

 

ICTU wants direct provision-based asylum seekers aged over 60 years old – and those with pre-existing medical conditions – to be allowed to move to accommodation where they can effectively self-isolate and cocoon. It says this will help stop the spread of the coronavirus.

 

ICTU’s international officer David Joyce said: “There is no conflict between measures to protect public health and human rights. It’s simply not in the public health interest to have direct provision centres that potentially spread the virus quickly.”

 

Congress says conditions in direct provision centres often make it impossible for people to self-isolate. Yet the State’s recommended strategy is to self-isolate and self-quarantine, while minimising human contact and social gatherings.

 

ICTU has also criticised the decision to exclude asylum seekers who lost work because of the crisis from the Covid-19 pandemic unemployment payment.

 

Almost 5,700 refugees and asylum seekers, including over 1,700 children, are currently living in 39 direct provision centres. Another 1,585 people, including 285 children, are staying in emergency accommodation.

 

The Movement for Asylum Seekers in Ireland (MASI) says people in direct provision often live in very close quarters, sharing living spaces and other facilities with multiple families.

 

“The HSE posters on social distancing are useless to an asylum seeker sharing a tiny bedroom with a stranger, having to use communal bathrooms, and congregating in a canteen for meals three times a day,” it says.

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