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Accessibility & LanguageNews Archive
CDLP-ICHR Submission
Feb
19
2021
Posted: 09:35 GMT
Submissions on the vulnerability assessment tool and disability in Direct Provision
The Centre for Disability Law & Policy (CDLP) and the Irish Centre for Human Rights (ICHR) have presented a submission to Minister Roderic O’Gorman T.D. (Minister for Children, Equality, Disability Integration and Youth) and Minister Anne Rabbitte T.D. (Minister of State with responsibility for Disability). The submission highlighted the need for a human rights focused, ‘disability lens’ to be applied to all aspects of the planned vulnerability assessment tool, required under EU law. A human rights focus is essential to ensure Ireland fulfil’s its obligations to asylum seekers with a disability under the European Communities (Reception Conditions) Regulations 2018, and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which Ireland ratified in 2018. More than 2 years after the adoption of the 2018 Regulations, Ireland has still not implemented vulnerability assessments for asylum seekers.
Asylum seeker children and adults with disabilities are largely invisible in the Direct Provision system, as well as also being largely invisible and excluded from the wider Irish disability sector. The Irish State has a legal obligation under theEuropean Communities (Reception Conditions) Regulations 2018 to provide access to a vulnerability assessment tool within 30 days of an application for international protection being lodged for a list of vulnerable groups, including disabled asylum seekers. Since the legislation was transposed in 2018, there has been a delay in the development of the vulnerability assessment tool for over two and a half years. The vulnerability assessment tool is currently being piloted at the Balseskin Reception Centre.
Ireland will present its first State report to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2021. (Ireland was the last EU member state to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities). The State’s Draft Initial Report under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2020) was released by the Government in late December 2020 and is currently open for public consultation. There is no mention of asylum seekers with disabilities in Direct Provision in the Draft Initial Report.
Keelin Barry, author of the submissions and Irish Research Council PhD researcher at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, commented:
“It is imperative that the human rights of child and adult asylum seekers with disabilities living in Direct Provision are addressed as a matter of urgency by the Government. This human rights issue has been ignored and invisible for too long. Child and adult asylum seekers with disabilities should be recognized as equal rights bearers in Ireland, and have their human rights protected under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as should all disabled persons in the State.”
Professor Eilionóir Flynn, Director of the Centre for Disability Law and Policy at NUI Galway, commented:
“Internationally, we know that the number of disabled asylum seekers and refugees is increasing. Many refugees need to seek asylum because of disability-based oppression. Some asylum-seekers have acquired disabilities as a result of conflict, and others acquire disabilities in transit. As we move towards ending the system of Direct Provision, Ireland has a unique opportunity to address the specific inequalities experienced by disabled asylum seekers and to better protect their human rights.”
A second submission to the ‘White Paper on Direct Provision’ was also made to Minister Roderic O’ Gorman T.D. (Minister for Children, Equality, Disability Integration and Youth)
The submissions were authored by Keelin Barry, Irish Research Council Government of Ireland Scholar, and PhD Candidate at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, at NUI Galway and can be read below:
For media enquiries see the full press release below:
Website: www.nuigalway.ie/human_rights/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/IrishCentreHR
