New Bill to speed up asylum seeking process
A new Bill in the coming weeks will be published by the Government that aims to speed up the asylum process and reduce the amount of time people spend in the direct provision system.
The International Protection Bill, a general scheme of which is likely to be approved by Cabinet by the end of this month, will allow for a single procedure where asylum seekers have their requests for refugee status and other forms of protection dealt with at the same time.
The current fragmented system, where applications for different forms of protection are made sequentially, is partly blamed for chronic delays that have kept some people in direct provision housing for up to seven years.
Plans for a single procedure have circulated for almost a decade and were first included in the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill by then Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan in 2008. That draft law has gone through several revisions but has yet to be enacted.
Due to persistent delays in the system and pressure on Government over direct provision, however, Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald has split the asylum reforms from the main immigration overhaul and plans to publish them in a shorter, dedicated Bill.
The average waiting time as of late last year was four years, but some people have been in the system for up to seven years. While awaiting a decision, asylum seekers are housed in “direct provision” accommodation, where they are given meals and an allowance of €19.10 a week, but are prohibited from taking up paid work.
The new Bill is designed to simplify and speed up the process. It will mean that all types of protection, including refugee status and subsidiary protection, as well as any other grounds that may prevent the Minister from deporting an individual, will be investigated and decided on at the same time.
Discussions are continuing in the Department of Justice on ways in which the Bill can be framed so as to also benefit people whose applications are already in the system.
