We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 April 2023
Introduction
This chapter will discuss the system of Direct Provision, which has been in place for the past 21 years to accommodate asylum seekers seeking international protection in Ireland. Direct Provision provides largely institutional, communal accommodation and access to some ancillary services, as well as a small weekly supplementary allowance to child and adult asylum seekers. This chapter will first give an overview of the Direct Provision system. It will then focus on the particular context of disabled asylum seekers living in Direct Provision, a group that has largely remained invisible in relevant discussions. It will further discuss the EU (recast) Reception Conditions Directive (RCD) (2013/33/EU) (European Union, 2013), which was transposed to Irish legislation in 2018 as ‘No. 230/2018 European Communities (Reception Conditions) Regulations 2018’ (Government of Ireland, 2018). Specifically, the RCD sets out the minimum standards for the reception conditions of asylum seekers by EU member states. It includes provisions to address the special reception conditions requirements for certain groups of vulnerable asylum seekers, with one such group being disabled asylum seekers. The RCD contains a legal requirement to develop a formal vulnerability assessment tool. Two and a half years after the RCD was transposed to Irish legislation, it is yet to be implemented. The COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the critical need for the Irish government to abolish the Direct Provision System, and to immediately develop and implement a robust vulnerability assessment tool, as is the legal requirement under the EU (recast) Reception Conditions Directive (2013/33/EU) (EU, 2013).
Direct Provision
Living in Direct Provision is the worst, evilest and unhealthiest thing that ever happened to me and my children. Seven good years of living in pain, agony and years of living in constant fear, not knowing what might befall you the next day. Seven years of my life were taken away from me by people who rendered me powerless and voiceless; years that can never be replaced, that have set me fifteen years backward, years that are permanently stuck in my head, years that have cost me so much regret, years that made me lower than my equals. Years that my life and that of my children were put on hold by a person or group of people who refused to make decisions and kept us in limbo for that long.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
