Republican News · Thursday 27 March 2002

The new wage slaves

Unjust labour laws in multicultural Ireland

BY ROISIN DE ROSA

Two years ago, Mary Harney announced that Ireland would need 200,000 immigrant workers if we were to achieve the implementation of the National Plan.

Last Friday, 21 March, was International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. All over the country, people came together to challenge racism and promote a more intercultural society in Ireland in events co-ordinated jointly by the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI); KNOW Racism, the Dublin government's 'national' Anti-Racism Awareness Programme; and the Six-County Equality Commission.

Despite this, there are ongoing policies, practices and threats that amount to little more than institutional racism - carried out, in law, in the name of the people of Ireland.

Asylum Seekers

There were some 11,634 asylum applicants last year in the 26 Counties. The office of the Applications Commissioner, which first processes asylum applications, refused the overwhelming number, granting status to 893, a success rate of some 7.5%. The appeals tribunal granted asylum to 1,097 out of 5,099 cases, which brought the acceptance rate to 21.5% of cases dealt with.

Why are so few people accepted for refugee status, when the economy needs 200,000 workers?

OK, unemployment is rising, but we still have a National Plan, and we still have a top-heavy population structure, with too few of working age to support our society's growing aged population. Why, in our multiculturalism, don't we welcome those who want to come to our shores? Does it make any sense against the 40,000 work visas granted by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

Denial of rights to Asylum seekers

Increasingly, asylum seekers are being accommodated in huge centres, such as Athlone, a caravan encampment surrounded by fencing, where access is through security men; and another at Knockalisheen in Limerick. The largest encampments are at Mosney, which holds 530, and Balseskin, near Dublin Airport, which holds 423.

So asylum seekers are separated from local community life or any contact with local people. Those on 'dispersal' receive €19 per adult per week, (Children €9.50), which sum, apart from being totally inadequate to their personal needs, prohibits socialising in the community.

In recent weeks, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform has taken over the administration of these 'benefits' from the Department of Social Welfare. It is a bad sign. Many people fear that under amendments to the Immigration Bill of 2002, Justice Minister Michael McDowell will attempt to introduce regulations - similar to those contested last week in an English court - whereby an asylum seeker must apply immediately for asylum on arrival in Ireland. Those who fail will not be entitled to receive any payment or support whatever. Given that asylum seekers are not permitted to work in the state, this provision would remove all legal means of survival.

Application on arrival is not required under the Geneva Convention and may present huge obstacles for newcomers neither familiar with the language or government regulations. The measure represents another way of excluding those seeking sanctuary here.

Exile for Irish children

Then there are all those asylum seekers who, on the birth of children in the 26 Counties, dropped their normal applications for refugee status, applying instead for residency rights on the understanding that parents of children born in the state would be entitled to remain here.

The recent Supreme Court decisions in the Osayande and Lobe cases have thrown this supposition in the air, and the status of claims for residency or refugee status that might have been pursued by these parents of Irish citizens are now in legal limbo.

Integrating Ireland - a network of 140 community and voluntary organisations committed to promoting and realising human rights, equality and full integration of refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants in Ireland - last week addressed a submission to the Minister of Justice.

They point out "the absolute constitutional right of children born in Ireland to citizenship in the state and that all children are born equal, but that the government may treat certain children differently - because their parents were not born in the state". The submission asks "whether they will effectively be deported, or exiled along with their parents"?

In the Lobe and Osayande cases, Department of Justice lawyers stated that it was the parents' 'duty' to take their children with them. "If the children are taken to a foreign country, how long will they be required to remain in exile?" asks Integrating Ireland. "Furthermore, what will happen to the children if they find themselves in a country that routinely engages in serious breaches of human rights, or if their parents are placed in prison following deportation?

"Who will protect these children from such abuses as forced marriage, female genital mutilation and torture, which are common practices in many of the countries of origin of the parents?"

What is wrong with these children born in the state that they could not be given the rights affording to other children born here? It is a valid question that Minister McDowell needs to answer.

Migrant labour

Behind current government policies and practices in the treatment of asylum seekers is a whole unknown and unrecorded world of migrant labour.

Last year, 40,000 foreigners received permits to work here. Many of these workers have been brought in by agencies for hire onwards. Others are here through work permits granted to companies, or individuals, in the state. The work permits are the property of the company that applied for them. Migrant workers are like indentured labourers. They remain entirely in the hands of those who hold the work permit, not only to remain in this country, but also for the protection of rights at work.

Essentially, such workers have no rights. "They are amongst the most vulnerable workers now in the Irish labour market," comments Joan Carmichael, assistant general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

Agencies of indentured labour

She pointed out recently in The Irish Times that there were 400 recruitment agencies here in 1999. There are now 600, many of them not registered. These agencies hire out workers to different companies, retaining a slice of the hired labourer's wage. Labourers are not employed directly by the company for which they work, but by the agency.

Many migrant workers are working in meat factories, in agriculture, often in appalling conditions, and living in overcrowded dormitory housing, often the property of their employers, without rights. One anecdote recalls an employer who explained that the culture here in Ireland is that workers don't get paid for Saturdays.

A particular case in point arose recently concerning migrant workers employed as domestics in private homes. Hard evidence and numbers are hard to get. These workers are effectively working behind closed doors, their only daily interaction being with the host families who retain their work permits. Such people are hard to find and reluctant to talk, but anecdotal evidence suggests appalling exploitation.

Domestic labour

Many are living in intolerable situations, with illegal deductions, such as charges for meals or accommodation, and working hours well outside of their original contracts. Such workers are entirely in the hands of their employers. They live under threat of dismissal, when they then become illegal, with no source of support and no way to buy a ticket home.

Furthermore, the Equality Act specifically excludes domestic work from its provisions. Niall Crowley, chief executive of the Equality Authority, has made recommendations to government and is anxious to see this situation changed.

Does the treatment of migrant labour explain the otherwise paradoxical situation of recognised need to import migrant labour and at the same time the rejection of those who seek sanctuary in Ireland to escape persecution at home? It would be reasonable to assume so.

Migrant labour is subject to despatch when the state decides it is no longer needed, whereas refugees possess ther own work permits. With migrant labour, the work permit is in most cases in the hands of the employer, and so are workers' labour rights. The law becomes a charter for the exploitation of foreign workers.

You don't need to be black to be the object of racial discrimination. You only need to be different.