The Irish Times migration correspondent Ruadhán Mac Cormaic will speak at the launch of a booklet 'Asylum Seekers: A Reality Check for Ireland', which has been written by NUI Galway students. Ruadhán was the 2007 winner of the 'For Diversity, Against Discrimination' journalism award by the European Commission. The event takes place at 12 noon on Thursday, 8 October, in the Siobhán McKenna Theatre, Arts Millennium Building, NUI Galway. The booklet was produced by students as part of the service learning requirement in the M.A. in Philosophy: Ethics, Culture and Global Change at NUI Galway. The launch is in collaboration with the University's Community Knowledge Initiative (CKI), the Refugee Information Service (RIS) and the Galway Refugee Support Group (GRSG). Primarily through a series of interviews, the students sought to better understand some of the most important issues concerning asylum-seekers, one of the most marginalised groups within Irish society. According to Lorraine McIlrath, Director of the CKI, which funded the production of the booklet: "Unfortunately, the students found that there is still a great deal of confusion with regard to asylum-seekers' rights and entitlements with specific regard to third level education. As Judy Irwin, the Co-ordinator of the Refugee Information Service in Galway proposes in the booklet, greater clarity and transparency is required in order to provide a satisfactory service for immigrants in Ireland". One of the guest speakers on 8 October will be Triona Nic Giolla Choille from the Galway Refugee Support Group. Speaking about the impact of the policy of Direct Provision which houses asylum-seekers in centralised locations, Triona said: "I think that one of the most negative aspects of Direct Provision is how it marginalises people physically. I think the other thing is by housing people communally for such a long period of time, it marks them as different and not part of 'us'. Furthermore, Asylum-seekers are a very visible marginalised group. I think that this has the potential to create racism and prejudice, and indeed I think it facilitates the development of prejudice". Admission to the launch and the booklet are free. All are welcome. For further information contact John McInnes, one of the authors of the booklet, on 086 8430399. -ends-