Government's refusal to raise asylum seekers allowance shameful

national | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Friday December 07, 2007 13:13 by pderossa - labour

Proinsias De Rossa MEP has described as 'shameful' the Government's refusal to increase the €19.10 payment made to the roughly 6,500 asylum seekers under the direct provision measures introduced eight years ago.

Mr De Rossa was speaking at the start of a Conference on immigration and poverty taking place this morning which he hosted in conjunction with the European Anti-Poverty Network Ireland, taking place in Dublin.

Mr De Rossa said: “There is surely no other payment in any walk of life that has not been increased in eight years. The payment was introduced in 1999 and set at £15 for adults and £7.50 for children. Apart from translating the payments in Euros (now €19.10 and €9.60 respectively), they have remained the same ever since.

The Minister for Justice Brian Cowen spoke in his budget speech of protecting the 'vulnerable' and 'weaker' members of society yet this FF 'concern' does not extend to asylum-seekers and their children. Many asylum-seekers have been living on this payment for up to five years or longer solely because they are waiting for a decision by the Government on their applications and because the Government withdrew the right to work and study from them eight years ago.

The payment was miserly eight years ago and is even more so now. The Combat Poverty Agency, the ICTU, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, the NWCI and CORI have all called for it to be increased to €60 for adults and
€35 for children. This would have cost just €16.2 million.

'De Rossa also said "The payment leaves little or no room for any discretionary spending by families on personal items and creates particular difficulty at times like Christmas. Such families are not entitled to receive social welfare payments, but their food and lodging is provided and paid for by the state.
The €19.10 is a reduced Supplementary Welfare Allowance Payment. The basic SWA rate, to which this payment is supposed to linked, has been increased in each budget since, but asylum-seekers have got no increase at all."

"Because it will not allow them to work, the state is obliged to provide for asylum seekers. As long as we deny asylum-seekers the right to work, there is an obligation on the state to provide for them. The Government's decision not to increase this payment is shameful. It is the children who will suffer most."